The Team 7 Chronicles
by RavageDarkness
Summary: Team 7, the first ever four man team to graduate from the Konoha Ninja Academy. As they experience the shinobi life, they must contend with many obstacles, both internally and externally.
1. Rocky Formation

Naruto

I lied in my sleeping bag, looking up at the ceiling.

I felt kind of weird. On one hand, I was extremely worn out after what happened today. But for that same reason, I couldn't sleep. I kept on thinking about it.

It all started during the Genin Exam. I was really determined to pass this time. I failed it two times before, but I had a feeling this one was going to be it. Everything was going well. I was able to make a perfect transformation. I was able to turn into a naked woman right in front of Iruka-sensei! But then I had to make a bunshin, and I couldn't make a proper one. Clones were always my weakness. I failed again. I was discouraged until Mizuki-teme told me that I could become a genin if I learned the Kage Bunshin, and I stupidly believed him.

So I snuck into the Hokage's Building, stole the scroll, and learned the technique. But it was all a trick. Mizuki just wanted the scroll for himself. He then told me the reason why everyone in the village hated me. It turns out that the Kyubi that attacked the village 12 years ago was not killed, but sealed inside of me. That meant no one saw me as a regular kid, but as the monster was responsible for killing many people. I thought no one cared about me until Iruka-sensei took a huge shuriken to the back to save me. He was the only person who consistently rooted for me. I made Mizuki pay for what he did by using the technique of the same scroll he wanted me to steal. Then Iruka-sensei even gave me his forehead protector.

I smiled to myself. I made my first step to becoming the next Hokage. Now I'll make every person who thought I was nothing recognize me.

Believe it!

Kureiga

"Kureiga, your lunch is packed!" I heard my mother yell from down the hall. My black eyes moved from my shoes and out the door of my bedroom. "Don't be late!"

"I won't!" I yelled back as I tied my shoes. I stood up before checking myself in the mirror of my dresser. I smiled slightly at the dark-skinned fellow staring back at me. Today was the day I could wear the uniform I bought the day I found out I graduated. I stood there, donning black pants, tucked into black, closed-toe boots. I also wore a matching vest over a matching short sleeved t-shirt. I also kept two pouches tied to my outer thighs, the right holding my kunai and and the left holding my shurikens. My parents thought the color was too depressing. I told them the color was perfect. It helped me blend in if I needed to hide in the surrounding environment, especially if it was a forest at night time. I wrapped my hitai-ite around my forehead, tying a knot behind my head and securing it.

"Kureiga Kazama, Genin of the Leaf," I said. I liked the way that sounded.

I ran my right hand through my short hair as I walked out of my room, grabbing my knapsack and fingerless gloves along the way, and down the hall. In the kitchen I saw my mother, waiting on me with a smile and a bento hanging from her fingers. I stopped in front of her, and she placed a hand on my shoulder.

"My my, have you grown," she said. "Look how tall you've become."

"I got that from you, you know," I said. I then half-smiled. "I guess I should thank my father for having a thing for tall women!" My mother sighed. She was rather tall, about six foot three inches. I stood two inches shorter than her. She had long hair and her skin was a little darker than mine. However, our eyes was an almost exact match.

"And I guess I should admonish myself for being attracted to such a smart-alec," she said. She then looked me in the eye. "Speaking of which, your father is out, getting some supplies for the shop. But he wanted to wish you good luck on your first day." I smiled. Then I felt a kiss on my forehead. I blushed slightly. "Now get going!"

"Hai!" I hugged my mother before grabbing the bento from her hands and making my exit. I stopped at the balcony of my home. I thought about walking, but I had a feeling I wouldn't arrive at school on time.

You see, my, dad runs a pastry shop. So, whenever I can, I helped out with the business by not only doing simple chores, but by making deliveries as well. I've done so for so long that many people knew me by name. I knew that I would be having many chats along the way to the academy if I walked.

I took a deep breath before I jumped towards the nearest roof. I then started running towards the academy, using the many rooftops of the many homes and businesses of the village like stepping stones across a river. As I did so, I looked below, taking in the many scenes of the morning. I saw a cat being chased by what looked like a team of ninja. I saw Kurenai-sensei and Asuma-sensei walking together, making me wonder if the rumors of them having a thing for each other were true. I saw Ino and Sakura arguing with each other, as usual. I even saw Gai-sensei on his morning run, making me wonder which one of his likely ridiculously high amount of laps he was on. After a few minutes, I was on the roof of the academy. I jumped from the roof and landed on the ground in front of the entrance. I took a deep breath as before walking towards the open door, pulling on my gloves as I did so. I didn't see that many students out, which meant that almost everybody was already inside of the classroom.

"Time to meet my team," I said, remembering that it was the day that the rookies were going to be assigned to teams. I walked down the hall before coming upon the door of my destination. I opened the door and entered the classroom where I learned a good amount of the essentials of the shinobi way. It had stadium style seats, allowing whichever instructor who was teaching that day to see everyone in the classroom, as demonstrated by the many pieces of chalk and erasers that hit the foreheads of many students who fell asleep. In the front of the classroom was a large blackboard, clouded by many marks left by erasers. A few feet in front of the board was a normal brown desk with a normal wooden chair behind it.

I walked down the stairs, passing a certain mass of orange. I then stopped in my tracks and turned towards that mass of orange, which was actually an orange jacket, belonging to the one person I've ever seen wear orange.

"Naruto?" I said questioningly, a little surprised to see him. He looked up at me with a scowl. "What are you doing here?" I had to ask. Last time I saw him, he was out on the swing set by his lonesome, looking on from the distance while all of the graduates were celebrating with their parents. My parents asked me if I wanted to invite him over for dinner, but I refused. It's not that I hated or disliked him. I just didn't feel right asking someone who failed the test to come with me to a dinner celebrating me passing. As far as I was concerned, doing that would have been the equivalent of asking a boy with no legs to walk with me down a flight of stairs.

"I graduated!" he said in an annoyed tone, pointing to his hitai-ite. "Can't you tell, dattebayo?!" I looked up at it and smirked.

"So you managed to become a genin," I said, a smirk coming across my face. "I must say, it took you long enough! But you know what? I'm glad for you." Before Naruto could respond, we both snapped our heads to the entrance to see two girls arguing. Specifically, it was Ino Yamanaka and Sakura Haruno, apparently continuing the argument I saw them having earlier. I couldn't quite hear them from where I was. Not that it mattered. It was a rare day in Konoha when the two of them occupy the room without arguing. After a small back and forth, Sakura walked towards our direction, waving her hands in greeting.

Naruto stood up from his seat immediately.

"Hi, Sakura-ch-" he started to say before he was immediately pushed aside so she could greet the person she was actually waving to: Sasuke Uchiha, who just happened to be sitting next to Naruto. I rolled my eyes as the pink-haired girl struck up a short, one-sided conversation with the loner before Ino and the other girls in the classroom started arguing with Sakura over who should sit next to him. Yes, you read that right: the group of girls were arguing over a seat that Naruto was sitting in. I couldn't help but roll my eyes again before Naruto was immediately on top of the desk in front of Sasuke, which immediately sparked a stare down. Things got tense as many people gathered around the two of them, urging Sasuke to "knock out that whiskered punk". That was quickly taken care of when a student sitting behind Naruto stood up, accidently knocking the orange-clad boy forward, which, in turn, caused Naruto's lips to meet Sasuke's. I walked over to Naruto before patting his shoulder as he coughed and complained about his mouth burning. Sasuke was having a similar reaction. Had I walked in at that moment, I would have thought they were poisoned. I laughed at the whole scene, finding it hilarious.

"I guess that killed a few fan girls' fantasies," I said between laughs. However, I stopped at laughing and Naruto stopped coughing. I felt it. He felt it.

"Killing Intent," Naruto and I both said at the same time as we both turned around and faced a crowd of girls. Girls that seemed none too happy about the scene they saw.

"Oh my…" I managed to mutter before Naruto and I received the mother of all beat downs. Halfway through it, I legitimately worried that I had seen my last day as a shinobi before I heard the voice of Iruka-sensei, telling the group to stop playing around. Up to that point, I had never been happier to hear my teacher's voice in my life.

Sakura

I sat down at the desk, waiting for Iruka-sensei to assign the teams. I silently prayed for him to put me on the same team with Sasuke, or at the very least, a team other than Naruto's. I looked to my right, eyeing the said ninja, who, along with Kureiga, was slumped over the desk, their faces adorned with many welts. I was actually surprised he even passed. He does very little right, if anything. All he ever did was talk about ramen and becoming the next Hokage, and all he ever did was pull pranks and ask me out, over and over. I actually felt bad for any team that he was assigned to. I looked over at Sasuke and offered him a smile. He merely looked ahead. My smile grew wider. _So mysterious!_

My attention went forward as Iruka started announcing the teams.

"Now, this year, things are going to be a little different," Iruka-sensei started. "Odd as it, this is going to be the first time that there are going to be a four man team coming out of the academy. Usually, all teams that leave the academy are teams of three, but due to numbers of graduates this time around, there will be one team making that exception. That team will be Team 7. Now before I announce the teams, allow me to make one thing clear, just in case some of you…" I couldn't help but smirk as he shot Naruto a look. "…try to argue against your assignments. The teams are not put together by random. All of you have an ability that not only makes you fit to become ninja of the The Leaf, but to also supplement the abilities of your teammates, as well as make up for each other's flaws. Basically put, your very presence on the team will bring out the best of your team, and the presence of your team will bring out the best in you." He paused momentarily, apparently giving time for the information to sink in. What he said made sense. But then again, I tend to expect that from my instructors.

"Now, here are your assignments," Iruka said. "The first team is Team 7. The members are Naruto Uzumaki…."

My heart stopped.

_Please not with him. Please not with him. PLEASE, NOT, WITH, HIM!_

"….Sakura Haruno….."

I bowed my head in dismay. _Why?! _To my right, I could see Naruto cheering. Great.

"……Sasuke Uchiha….."

It was my turn to cheer. I then turned around and stuck my tongue out at Ino, who looked down at me in disbelief. "Take that, Ino-Pig!" She immediately flipped me the bird.

"…..and Kureiga Kazama."

"Oh, this should be fun," I heard him mutter, his voice laced with saracasm.

After all the teams were announced, we were dismissed for an extended lunch.

Kureiga Kazama

I sat outside, on the branch of a tree. On my lap was an emptied bento. I sucked on the tips of my chopsticks, thinking about the team arrangements. I thought about it up down, and no matter which way I sliced it, I couldn't help but feel like I got screwed.

I didn't want to be part of Team 7. Point blank. While Iruka's speech was very logical, a part of me wondered how much sake he was consuming when he put us together. Quite frankly, I didn't see how all of us could get along. I wasn't so fond Sakura, especially after the beat down I received, partially at her hands. Sakura, hated Naruto, Naruto hated Sasuke, and Sasuke didn't seem to like anyone. As far as I was concerned, you might as well leave an open flame near containers of kerosene. But there was nothing I could do. So, for the time being, I was sailing on a ship, waiting for the storm to hit.

After what seemed like an eternally extended lunch, I went straight to the classroom to see who my team leader was going to be. I stepped in and looked around. Apparently, all of the other teams left with their Jonin leaders, because Sasuke was the only one in the room. He looked outside of the window, apparently lost in thought. I smiled.

"Yo!" I greeted. He turned his head towards me for a few seconds before looking out the window again. I rolled my eyes, wondering to myself why I even wasted my breath, before leaning against the section of the wall nearest to the door. After a few minutes, Sakura entered the room. She passed by me and struck up another one-sided conversation with Sasuke. Naruto was the last enter. Almost immediately, I felt a wave of killing intent. I turned around to see Sasuke, who glared daggers towards Naruto's direction. I looked back at Naruto, who paused for a second before giving off a grin.

"How was your lunch, Teme?" he asked in a taunting tone. Sasuke merely narrowed his eyes before looking away. Apparently, something happened between the two of them during lunch, and the situation ended in Naruto's favor. Sakura looked at Sasuke before giving Naruto a glare of her own. Before she said anything, I spoke.

"So when's our leader coming?" I asked.

"He should be here any minute now," Sakura answered, pointing at the clock. "It's a good thing we all got here on time."

"Yes!" Naruto said excitedly. "The sooner, the better, dattebayo!"

Naruto

A few minutes became an hour. The hour became two. I looked down the hall, losing my patients.

"Naruto, will you calm down?!" I heard Sakura say. I frowned slightly.

"Where is he?!" I groaned. "It's been two hours!" I then walked over to the white board and grabbed an eraser. I smiled, thinking of a prank. I grabbed a chair and partially opened the door a crack. I then laid it on top of the door, laughing to myself.

"Naruto, what are you doing?" Sakura said in an annoyed voice. I merely smiled at her.

"Serves our leader right for being late," I said.

"Do you really think that such a childish prank will work on a jonin?" Sasuke said. I opened my mouth before the door opened. I smiled as the eraser hit the head of an adult before it landed in his hand. The adult had silver-grey hair, and had his face almost entirely covered by a mask, and his hitai-ite covering his left eye, leaving one lone, black eye as the only visible part of my face. He still wore the usual uniform I seen jonin wear: black long sleeved shirt, green collared vest, and green pants. He looked at all of us.

"An eraser?" he said, as if he didn't seem to care. "My first impression of you guys... I hate you all." I scowled at him. "Meet me at the stairs of the academy." After a few hand signs, he disappeared.

"Oh, this should be FUUUUN!" I heard Kureiga say as the four of made our ways out of the door.

Kakashi

I looked down at the four genin in front of me. They seemed like a weird group, to say the least. I almost envied the other instructors. Asuma gets the second generation of the Ino-Shika-Cho team, Kurenai gets the heir of the top clan, an Aburame, and an Inuzuka. And I get… well I didn't know who I was getting. I had information on all of them, but I mostly knew about Sasuke and Naruto, but that was only because the former was the last of one of the village's most prestigious clans and the latter was notorious for pulling pranks, as well as for other things. I'd even go as far as to bet my entire Icha Icha collection that Naruto was the one who set up that eraser that hit me earlier. All I know about Sakura and Kureiga was that they were the most knowledgeable student and number one trash talker in the class, respectively.

"Okay, first things first," I said, breaking the silence. "I want each of you to say your name, your likes, your dislikes, and your ambitions or desires."

"What about you?!" Naruto yelled. That's just what I needed, another loudmouth. "We don't know anything about you. Shouldn't you be introducing yourself?"

"Fine," I said nonchalantly. "My name's Kakashi Hatake. I have many likes, and I have many dislikes. I also have a few ambitions. But I have no desire to tell you about any of them." Naruto pouted at that answer while Sakura tilted her head in disbelief. Kureiga rolled his eyes, muttering a few words to himself, and Sasuke… just sat there. "Now since you wanted to know some things about me, it's your turn." The blonde smiled while gripping his hitai-ite.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki," he started. "I like pulling pranks and ramen. I hate the time it takes to prepare ramen…" It took all my willpower not to roll my eyes. I started to wonder if there was anything on his brain other than ramen. "…and for my ambitions... I want to become the best Hokage this village has ever seen."

_Interesting,_ I thought to myself, smiling slightly under my mask. He sure did grow up, in a way. I then turned towards the black-clad ninja.

"I'm Kureiga Kazama. I like eating pastries from my dad's shop, developing my own jutsus, cracking jokes, and hanging out with friends. I dislike anyone who disrespects my friends and people whose bark is more dangerous than their bite. I wish to become the head of ANBU." My smile grew slightly wider. It wasn't every day I get two people with a high goal. I then looked towards Sakura.

"Your turn."

"I'm Sakura Haruno. I like…" Her eyes darted towards Sasuke, before continuing. "I hate… Naruto." This caused said boy to wince and Kureiga to rub the bridge of his nose. "And my desire is…" Her eyes darted towards Sasuke again.

"I'm Sasuke Uchiha," he started, either ignoring Sakura's stares or not noticing. "I have few likes and few dislikes. My ambition is to rebuild my clan… and to kill a certain man." This brought a look of surprise from the three other genin. I, myself, wasn't surprised, however.

"That's good for now," I said. "Tomorrow, we'll start our duties as shinobi." This brought a smile on the faces of three of the four genin. Sasuke merely raised his eyebrows. "However, we're going to do something special, just the five of us. We're having survival training."

"Survival training?!" Naruto yelled.

"We already had that in the academy," Sakura said, protest evident in her voice. I merely laughed under my mask.

"Along with every other kind of training," Kureiga added.

"Not this kind of training," I replied. "You never had training with me as an opponent. You see, there are 28 graduates, including yourselves..." I started laughing again. As the four of them looked at me, I managed to hold back the laughter, suppressing it into giggles. "Sorry, it's just that… you're going to freak after you hear this. Thing is, even though you graduated from the academy, out the 28 graduates, there's only going to be nine or ten of you that will remain genin. The rest will head straight back to the academy."

"WHAT?!" Naruto, Kureiga, and Sakura exclaimed in unison.

"What was all those years at the academy for?!" Naruto yelled. "Were they all worthless?! A waste of our time?!"

"I told you were going to freak," I said, chuckling at their reactions. "That all depends. If you survive tomorrow, it will be well worth the effort. See you tomorrow morning at the training area, nine o'clock sharp. Make sure you all bring ample ninja equipment. Oh, and don't eat breakfast. You'll puke." I performed a few hand signs before disappearing in a puff of smoke. I instantly reappeared on the roof and looked down at the four of them. From what I can see, Naruto seemed to have asked Sakura something, only for him to receive a nasty retort. She then turned towards Sasuke and said something to him. He merely walked away. Kureiga then said his piece, which was apparently another one of his wise comments as he was promptly responded to with a punch to the top of his head before she walked off after Sasuke. I had a feeling in my gut that they were going to have teamwork issues.

Unfortunately, as the next day came upon me, I wasn't prepared for the extent of their lack of team skills.

"Hey!" I greeted after landing on a post.

"YOU'RE LATE!" Naruto, Kureiga, and Sakura yelled at the same time. I merely smiled.

"Sorry, I got lost along the way," I replied coolly, receiving looks of disbelief, much to my amusement. I jumped down in front of them. "I hope you heeded my advice about not eating breakfast."

"Yeah, thanks a lot for that," Kureiga said irritably. "My mom made broiled fish this morning!" I ignored him.

"Now, we're going to start this special training." I reached into one of the pouches on my belt and plucked out two bells that were joined together by a thin piece of string. "This is going to be your test. You have until noon to take these bells away from me. Each person that grabs a bell passes this challenge, as well as getting the privilege to eat. There is only one condition. The bells must be intact, and in the condition they are in at this point. You're allowed to use any and all ninja weapons in all of your possession. But don't go after me the way you could come after an instructor. Come at me with the intent to kill."

"Wait a minute!" Naruto yelled. "There are only two bells! How are all of us going to pass is there are only two bells for the four of us?" The other three looked at me, expecting an answer.

"Because that's how my test goes," I deadpanned. "However, the better question is what makes you think that you, a genin, can question the teaching methods of a jonin. Especially a genin who was _dead last_ in his class." I saw his eyebrow twitch. "Now we'll start at my sig-"

"Kind of harsh, don't you think?" Kureiga said, raising an eyebrow at Naruto.

"What did you expect from him?" Sakura replied, turning towards the black clad nin. "When has he done anything right? I'm even surprised he became a shinobi." Naruto's eyes enlarged and his eyebrows scowled in rage as he grabbed his kunai and rushed at me, killing intent radiating from him in abundance. When he came within striking distance, I immediately grabbed his wrist and twisted it around his back, causing the kunai he was holding to be pressed against the back of his neck.

"Like I said, at my signal," I said calmly, amused at the discovery of Naruto's berserk button. "But at least you got the killing intent part down." I released my hold on Naruto, and he backed away. I smiled at the four of them. "I'm actually starting to like you guys. Now, let the test begin!" They all disappeared. I walked deeper into the training area before finally coming to a stop at the training area's lake. I pulled out a book of Icha Icha Paradise and started reading it. Everyone was well hidden. I smiled. Because of this display, I was somewhat optimistic about their display.

But that squashed really quickly.

The first one to come at me was Naruto. The way he did it was rather stupid!

"Oi!" he yelled out. I turned towards him, eyebrows raised, my mask hiding the disbelief on my face. Apparently, it didn't occur to him that ninja's aren't schoolyard brawlers. "I challenge you!" I turned back towards the book, reading the next page. I then brought my hands out and deflected every single last one of his attacks, kicks and all. After a few seconds I ducked under one of his kicks, and crouched behind him. I brought my hands together, putting the index and middle fingers of each hand forward, as if I was pointing.

"This is lesson number one," I said as I gathered my chakra to my fingers. "Konoha Secret Technique…" He turned his head around, fear apparent in his face. I then rammed my fingers into his rear end. "One Thousand Years of Death!" He was instantly launched into the lake. I chuckled, shaking my head. Then some bubbles reaching the surface, followed by man more as Naruto crawled on the bank. "It's never good to take on a superior opponent head on like that. Pick your spots, catch him off guard."

"This isn't over," he said, his eyes looked up at me with his signature mischievous smile. "Not by a longshot, dattebayo!" Immediately, a seemingly infinite amount of clones jumped of the water and charged after me.

"Another head on attack?" I said dully before I feel arms and legs tightened around me. I turned my shoulder to see Naruto hanging on to me. "What?"

"Catching you off guard," he said. I was impressed, until he further spoke. "Now it's time for revenge!" I looked forward to see a clone, coming down on me from the air, fist readied. I narrowed my eyes, as the fist came in contact with me. Well, almost did. I casted one of the most basic jutsus a student could learn at the Ninja Academy: Substitution. I instantly switched places with a random Naruto. I then looked on with amusement as the clone inadvertently punched out the clone I used for the substitution. Afterwards, the clones, being made in the mold of their source, argued with each other, thinking that one of them was me. So, unsurprisingly to me, the argument degraded into a schoolyard brawl. I mentally put down a point against him. Eventually, the real Naruto was left, disoriented from the beating he inadvertently received at his own hands. I smiled as I decided to have fun with him.

I jumped into a certain tree next that was near him and dropped the two bells on the ground in front of it. Predictably, he spotted the bells after steadying himself. Smiling as if he walked into a restaurant that was giving away free ramen, he quickly rushed towards the bells, only to get his foot caught into a snare. He was instantly hung upside down. As he was hanging, I dropped in front of him, reading the next chapter, giggling to myself. I then looked at Naruto.

"Lesson number two," I said stoically. "Don't rush into a situation. Look underneath the underneath and look at every angle of a situation. You foolishly ran for the bells, not considering the fact that it just happened to be a little too convenient that the bells you just happened to be looking for were there for you to see. Never let your guard down. Not even if your objective is -" I immediately did a substitution technique. Naruto didn't know that yet, because the log was still henged. All he saw was a bloodied mean with several shurikens against my side, and one sticking out of my temple.

"Sasuke, you Teme!" the blond yelled out. "You went too far!" I left, deciding to check on the other two. I stopped at the top of the tree, a mere ten feet from where I met Naruto, seeing Sakura looking left and right.

"Where's is Sasu-kun?" she said out loud. I rolled my eyes. A point against Sakura. I decided to have some fun.

"Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technuqe."

Sakura started to look around, seeing a swirl of leaves surround her. She had an extremely worried look on her face. After a few seconds, she heard a voice behind her, asking for help. She turned around to see Sasuke, with many weapons stuck to his bloodied body. I expected to her to run to "Sasuke's" aid. She, instead, fainted, starting to fall over. My genjutsu worked, just not in the way I expected. Inwardly, I wondered if I was too harsh.

I was on the move again, looking for Kureiga. I came to a stop in a clearing. Immediately, part of the ground faded away, revealing some scraps of paper. My eyes widened as the paper started to explode. I quickly swapped positions with another log as the area I was occupying went up in flames. After the smoke cleared, Kureiga came out into the clearing, looking left and right.

"Did I get him?" he asked himself. I then jumped from the tree to the ground and ran behind him, grabbing a kunai from my holster.

"No, you didn't," I said before I brought the handle of the kunai against the side of his head, knocking him out. I shook my head, before pulling out my book again. "I was expecting better from you guys." I then performed a side step, dodging a shuriken. I looked up to see Sasuke looking up at me.

"I'm not like the rest of these so-called ninja," he said in an almost sinister way. "And that's including that Dobe." I merely cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Is that so?" I said. That was a point against him. "You don't have any bells in your hand. As far as I'm concerned, you're no better than any of them. And that's including the Dobe." I felt the killer intent radiating off of him. He then rushed at me and threw a straight punch at me with his right hand. I dropped my book and grabbed his fist with my left hand. He immediately twisted around with his fist still in my hand, turning his back towards me. He then jumped, flipping backwards and bring his left foot towards the top of my head. I brought my right hand up ward and used my arm to block it. I then looked down to see him trying to reach for my bells. Surprised by this, I immediately pulled his arm and tossed him away. I was actually impressed by the move. I then jumped away, putting distance between himself and I. I then narrowed my eyes as he slapped his hands together, performing hand signs before breathing in.

_The Great Fireball Technique?! _I thought to myself, my eyes widening. _No genin should have the chakra reserves to perform such a jutsu!_

He breathed out a huge fireball. I had nowhere to go except down.

I sunk down into the ground as if it was water. When I was completely submerged, I walked forward until I was underneath Sasuke. I then reached up and grabbed him by the ankle before pulling downward until he was neck deep. I rose up from the ground in front of him before crouching down and looking at him. "That was the Inner Decapitation Technique," I said to him before looking up at the sun. "And it looks like it's about noon." I headed for the trees, leaving him in his state. I headed towards the memorial park, the masked being the only thing hiding my disappointment. I expected personalities to clash. After all, you get that with most, if not all, teams when they are first are formed. However, I didn't think they would have this much trouble. I came to a stop, rubbing the bridge of my nose with the thumb and finger of my right hand before dropping to the ground. I then raised my eyebrow. I saw Naruto standing over three bentos of food.

_I should have figured you be the one to be tied to the post,_ I thought to myself as I stealthily appeared behind him.

Sakura

We all gathered around three posts. Naruto was tied to one of them as the rest of us sat down in the grass. Naruto was struggling to get free, Kureiga mouthing some words to himself, and Sasuke sat in his usual position: elbows on his knees, with his hands laced together in front of his mouth. In front of us was Kakashi and behind him was what looked like some kind of headstone with symbols carved into it. Kaskashi was pacing back and forth, as if he was mulling something over in his head. None of us spoke, though Naruto's growls could be heard in what was otherwise a silent moment. Finally Kakashi stopped and looked at the four of us.

"I made my decision," he said. "You will not return to the academy…" Kureiga looked up at Kakashi, eyes widened. Naruto smiled, happy he didn't have to lose his status as a ninja after just receiving it a couple of days ago. Even Sasuke smiled slightly. I sighed, relief filling me up. Kakashi then continued. "…because you all should quit as ninja!"

"What?!" Naruto yelled.

"Why?" I asked.

"Don't you think that's kind of harsh?" Kureiga added.

"No, I don't," Kakashi-sensei said with angry edge to his voice. "I would say that you all performed like first year academy students, but I'm sure first year academy students would have performed better. You all did horrible. You are not ninja. You're a bunch of punks running around with ninja tools. None of you deserved to be called ninja. None. Of. You."

In a flash, Sasuke rushed after Kakashi, kunai in hand. In the next second, Sasuke was on the ground, flat on his stomach, with his arm twisted around his back and the kunai he charged towards Kakashi with against his throat. Kakashi then released his arms, grabbed him by the shirt and threw against the post to the right of Naruto.

"Sasuke!" I yelled, crawling towards him.

"Insulted by being called a punk, and yet you just proved why you are one," Kakashi mused. He then looked at all of us. "I'm going to let you in on a little secret. There was only one way you could have all passed this test: Teamwork." We all looked at him with looks of confusion on our faces. "You all could have all gotten the bells if you had worked together."

"But there were only two bells!" Kureiga protested. "How was all four of us going to pass if there were only two bells?"

"That's, the whole, point," Kakashi said. "This whole exercise is meant to test team chemistry because it is designed to pressure members to act on their own. So, it didn't take long for you all to start acting on your because you all don't have any chemistry. You all not only showed a lack of trust in each other, but performed like people that should _not_ be trusted by anyone.

"Naruto, you acted on your own and took on the target by yourself. That would have gotten you killed, which, in turn, would have crippled the team and its objective. You're supposed to be a ninja. Taking on enemies the way you tried to take me on does not get you honored. It makes you an example to future academy students on how acting in such a way is idiotic. Ninjas who died facing someone the way you have faced me don't even get their names carved into memorial." Naruto scolded at the ground below him.

"Sakura." I tilted my head. "You were so focused on Sasuke that you didn't even attempt to even go after the bells yourself. Sasuke is not the only person on your team, nor is he the objective. Tell me something. Were you there when Naruto got snared?" I slowly nodded. "Then why did you leave him hanging there to go look for Sasuke? You were more worried about a teammate that was far away than you were about a teammate who needed your help right there and then. If this was a C-ranked mission, or higher, he would have likely been dead by now." He then turned away from me as I lowered my head in shame.

"Kureiga, while I commend you for laying a trap and coming at me with killing intent, you were the only person out of the whole team who did _two_ things wrong. Number one, you forgot the main condition of the test. The bells were to be taken while _intact._ And yet knowing they were on me, you decided to try and catch me in explosion. What if I was holding an important document that had to be taken and brought back? You want to become head of ANBU, right? To become head of ANBU, you have to be proficient in all kinds of missions, and what you just did would have resulted in the failure in many kinds of missions. If your stunt had worked as you planned, you would have automatically failed everyone in one go. Listen to your objectives. You can't be a good leader if you're not a good follower. Number two, you didn't tell anyone else about your little trap. What if it someone else? You could have blown away your own teammate. Just like Naruto you acted on your own, and because you didn't tell anybody, you could have been the first person who managed to actually KILL someone during this test." Kureiga looked down on the ground, swearing to himself.

He then turned towards Sasuke, who glared back at him.

"I'm going to tell you this now, for two reasons. Number one, I decided to give you all a second chance at this test. And secondly, I believe you should hear this, because I doubt anyone will say anything to last of the prestigious Uchiha clan. Just because you have the blood of a highly-regarded clan running through your veins and you are top of your class, does not mean you're superior to your teammates. Look around you. If this team passes, not only will they depend on you, you will depend on them. You acted as if they were obstacles that would have gotten in your way. You are no better than anyone else on your team." He then turned around walked away. "Take thirty minutes for lunch. And if any of you feed Naruto…" He trailed off, leaving the consequences to our imagination. In front of us were three bentos.

I looked up at Naruto, whose face was still. He didn't even move when his stomach started growling. I then looked over at Kureiga, who had a guilty expression on his face as he looked at Naruto.

"Here," I heard Sasuke say, and I turned to see him offer Naruto a bento. I stood and grabbed the bento from his hands, opening it and removing the pair of chopsticks that was inside of it. I grabbed piece of chicken between the two sticks and put it to Naruto's lips. Naruto shook his head.

"What about what Kakashi said?" he protested.

"We have a second chance of doing this," I said, giving him a small smile. "I want all of us to pass."

"Yeah, but… I tried to eat the food without getting the bells," Naruto said, his eyes downcast.

"True…" Kureiga said. "But then again, we would have probably done the same thing. I know I would have." Everyone looked at him. "What? We had to skip breakfast! 'Sides, I won't tell you won't tell."

Naruto then turned his head and grabbed the piece of food trapped between the chopsticks with the front of his teeth. "Arigato," he said quietly. I smiled at him again.

"WHAT DID I JUST SAY?!" I heard a voice behind me boomed. All four of us turned towards Kakashi, who seemingly exploded out the ground.

"What's your malfunction?" Kureiga quipped, earning a glare from our sensei. "Hey, you're the one preaching about teamwork a minute ago, and you're getting angry at us for bailing him out?"

"He does have a point," I added. "If we're supposed to be a team…"

"…then we shouldn't leave our teammate in dire straits," Sasuke finished.

Kakashi stared at us for a few seconds. Those few seconds passed so slowly that it might as well have been three hours.

"You pass…"

All of us looked at him, jaws dropped.

"You pass," he repeated. He then walked over to the headstone that we saw earlier. "This is the grave of a friend of mine. My best friend, to be exact. We were on the same team. Not too different from this, except there were only three of us. I guess you can say we were missing a Kureiga. He died at one point, saving a teammate in the process. I used to think ill of people who break the rules for the sake of someone else. But if there's one thing he taught, is that anyone who doesn't help their comrade in need is trash." He turned back to us. "You are all free to go. We'll start our duties tomorrow."

"Sweet!" Kureiga said as he walked after Sensei along with Sasuke and I.

"Oy!"

All three of us turned around to see Naruto, still tied to the post.

"Can someone cut me down?" he pleaded. Kureiga chuckled as he pulled a kunai and walked towards him.

Naruto

I was on my thirteenth bowl of ramen at the Ichiraku Ramen Bar.

"Jeez, Naruto," Kureiga said. I stopped in mid-slurp and looked at him. "How much ramen can you put away?" I shrugged and continued eating. "Don't tell me you eat this stuff all the time." I swallowed the last bit of noodles before nodding. I looked at him. He was on his second bowl of ramen and second cup of tea.

"Of course!" I said, smile spread across my face. "It's the perfect meal! Nothing can be any better than ramen!"

"HAH! Wanna bet?! I mean, I like ramen, too, but come on. You should come over to my house and try my parents' cooking."

I stopped for a second, thinking of the possibility. I shrugged. "Maybe." I didn't think that would happen though.

"As a matter of fact, you almost did."

"Really?" I said, my eyes narrowing in confusion.

"Yeah," he said before taking a sip from his cup. "When we all graduated, my folks noticed that you were all by yourself, and they wanted to ask you to join us. I refused though. Not that I don't like you or anything. I just didn't feel right celebrating me passing the exam while you failed, you know?"

I looked at Kureiga, my eyes wide. I then narrowed my eyes.

"You're not from Konoha, are you?"

Kureiga chuckled a little.

"I am from Konoha. My parents aren't, however. My dad's a pastry chef. Before he moved here, he was a travelling chef, going from place to place, gathering recipes while selling his own creations out of this cart he used to travel around with. Then one day, he ended up in this village in the Land Of Wheat. It's this place east of the Five Great Nations. He was there to get a recipe for this dessert." He stopped and looked up at the ceiling in thought. "I think it was for Pumpkin Cream Puffs." He then shrugged his shoulders and looked at me. "But anyway, he stopped at this restaurant to eat. That's when he got served by this waitress. This waitress happened to be my mom. They fell in love with each other and married some months later. Eventually, she became pregnant with me. So my parents looked around the world to look for a place where he could open up shop and support the family. He found this place a few days after this big disaster." He then tilted his head. "Why'd you ask?"

"No reason!" I said quickly. I then hopped off the stool. "I got to go. Have to be ready for our first day as ninjas, dattebayo! See you tomorrow!"

"Likewise," Kureiga said with a nod. I waved at him before walking off.

Kureiga

I narrowed my eyes behind his back.

"That was odd," I said out loud.

"He's not well liked in the village," I heard a voice said. I looked up to see Teuchi, owner of the establishment looking at me from behind the counter, teapot in hand. I raised an eyebrow. "As a matter of fact, many hate him."

"Hate him?"

"Uh-huh. A lot of the adults in the village have a grudge against the boy."

"What did he do for them to have a grudge against him?" I asked, raising my right eyebrow. "I mean, the worst I've seen him done is pull a few pranks, and all of them were harmless."

"Law prohibits me from telling you." He brought the teapot near my cup before tipping slightly. I watched as warm tea poured down into the cup. "I'll let you know this much though. He doesn't deserve the scorn he gets from this village. A lot of people can't separate who he is from the past he reminds them of. And because of that, he gets mistreated by a lot of the villagers. They mock the boy and speak ill of him. Business owners would either take advantage of him or just outright refuse his business."

"You don't seem to hold that grudge," I commented. "If anything, you seem pretty fond of him."

"I'm one of the few who doesn't. Truth be told, I almost fell into this village's way of thinking. But one day, about seven years ago, right before closing time, I saw him walking down the street. At first, I ignored him. But as he got closer, I got a better look at him. I never saw such a pathetic sight. He was walking down the street, clutching his stomach, his face struggling to hide the pain he was in. I couldn't, in good conscious, let him stay like that. So I invited him in and cooked him all the ramen he could handle. As you can see, it was a lot of cooking." I chuckled at that statement.

"I can see that," I replied. "With a customer like him, I think you're set for life." I stood up and nodded at him in thanks. "I best get home. Thanks for the meal. It was greatly appreciated." He returned the gesture before moving to the back of the shop. I stood up from the stool and walked out into the streets. I looked left and right before I took the latter direction. I was really unsettled about what I just heard. I was so unsettled that I didn't even bother taking the rooftops home. I didn't know the village hated him so much. But then again, I never hung out with Naruto in the past. Only time we've talked was at school, and the worst I've seen done to Naruto was a flying eraser or chalk to his forehead. But that's all I knew. I didn't know where he lived, didn't know what he does outside of school other than pulling more pranks and eating ramen. All in all, I knew next to nothing about the Naruto outside of school grounds.

Some questions still remained in my head. Why do the villagers hate him, and why did law prevent people talking about it? I shook my head, feeling a headache coming on from pondering the information.

"Oy, something tells me I'm going to have one interesting experience with Team 7," I said to myself.

I decided to leave the issue for another day.


	2. Being a Friend

Kureiga

I looked over the railing of my home's balcony, tea cup in hand. I was still thinking about what Teuchi told me. It was one thing to say that Naruto was hated by the village. But what really confused me was the bit about it being against the law to talk about the _reason_ he is hated. It was weird to me. I've heard of laws passed because of incidents done by certain people, but this was the first time I've heard of a law applying to one person.

"Ohayo!" I heard a voice behind me say. I turned to see my father beaming a smile at me. I smiled.

"Good morning, Father," I replied back. He nodded as he walked over and joined me near the balcony.

When I was growing up, a lot of the kids in the neighborhood couldn't believe that he was my father. He was shorter than me, standing at five feet, nine inches, and had somewhat long, dark brown hair that he wore in a small ponytail. He also had a trimmed goatee that was connected to a small mustache. Rounding out his looks was a semi-permanent smile that I've rarely seen him without.

"Nice day we're having out today," he said happily, looking out at Konoha. "It's one of the reasons I chose this building for business and living. You get a nice view of the whole village from here, plus you get to see the sunrise."

"Yeah, it is nice," I said with mild interest as I looked out towards the city again. I then looked down to see my father's hand grip the cup I was holding. I released my hold on it, and he brought the cup closer to his eyes for closer inspection. He handed the cup back to me.

"What's wrong?" he asked in a paternal tone. I merely raised my eyebrow.

"What's makes you think something is wrong?" I replied in a calm voice.

"You're drinking red tea."

"So?"

"You hate red tea."

"…" I looked down at my cup, then back at my father. "Gomen. I forgot who I was talking to."

"Well, that's understandable. It's not like I raised you, clothed you, or anything like that." I rolled my eyes. "So what's bugging you?" He then paused. "Remind me to say that to an Aburame one of these days."

I sighed, rubbing the bridge of my nose with the thumb and index finger of my free hand, before speaking. "Hey, what do you know about Naruto?"

"Naruto?" he said. He then looked over at the city in thought. "You mean that boy who always runs around in that orange jacket? I can't say I really know much about him. The only thing I know about him is that he pulls pranks and that the villagers don't like him much." He then scratched the side of his face as his eyebrows drawn together in a frown. "I don't know why, though. Every time I asked, the villagers would just say that they can't say. I think it was about it being against some sort of law, or something like that." He then looked at me. "Why you ask?"

"That's what's been bugging me," I conceded before taking another sip of tea. "I was eating at Ichiraku's with Naruto last night. After he left, Teuchi told me the same thing, except he seemed rather fond of the guy." I tilted my head. "I just want to know what he did for this village to hate him so much. Sure, he has his habits, but so does everyone else in this village." My dad nodded.

"I see," he said. "I wish I could help you. But I know about as much about the situation as you do. Less, if you factor in what _you_ know about Naruto. Just try not to think about it too much."

"Fat chance, father," I said, scoffing as I took another sip. "I wouldn't have cared less if people disliked him for his pranks. I would have just told them to get over it. But it's not like I can just shrug this off as if it's nothing." I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked over at my father, who gave me a grave look.

"I'm very glad that you're taking this seriously," he said, giving me a brief smile. "But keep in mind, being a shinobi doesn't mean you're above the law. I'm not telling you to drop the matter. Just be careful about what you do, and how you do it. Last thing I want is to get a message from the Hokage that you're incarcerated." I was about to reply before I saw Naruto walking down the street, heading towards the Administration Building. I then turned towards my dad.

"I'll keep what you said in mind," I said. "But I got to go. I'll see you later."

Naruto

"Ohayo!"

I stopped in my tracks as I heard the voice. I looked behind me to see Kureiga running towards me.

"Yo!" I said as he caught up to me. I then continued to walk towards the Hokage's building, with him to my right. As I walked, I got a lot of glares from most of the villagers we passed by. I ignored them, like I usually do. It was something I learned how to do a while back. However, it was harder for me to do so since I learned who I carried around inside of me. Sure, it was bad enough thinking that people hated me for no reason. But knowing that people hated me for something I had no control over was worse to me. I wasn't Naruto to them. I was the Kyubi, the demon who killed hundreds of people.

I closed my eyes, clenching my fist and grinding my teeth. _Why me?!_

I then felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up to see Kureiga smiling at me.

"What do you think we're going to do for our first mission?" he asked. I put on a wide smile, hiding my anguish.

"Probably something dangerous, like taking out a mercenary, or tracking down a spy!" I said, my smile becoming real. "I seriously can't wait, dattebayo!"

"Maybe not that dangerous," he said, chuckling slightly. "We might just do something like border patrol, or maybe an escort mission."

"Well…" I thought about it for a few moments. "I guess that would be good, too."

In no time, we were at the stairs that lead to the Hokage's building. I then smiled slightly.

"Race you!" I said.

"What?" Kureiga said. I looked at him, my smile becoming wider.

"Race you!" I repeated. "I bet I can beat you, from here to the Hokage's office!" I heard him snort.

"You think so?" he asked. He didn't sound convinced. He then readied himself to run. "Okay, short stack, you're on!"

"Yosh! On my signal!" Kureiga nodded in approval. "On three! One…" I ran off, laughing hysterically.

"Come back here, Short Stack!" I heard him yell behind me. We both raced up the stairs, with me ahead and Kureiga in hot pursuit. We were approaching the doors when I saw someone opening the door. I quickly leaped into the air, clearing someone who looked like a kunoichi that was wearing red.

"Gomen!" I called out behind me.

"Pursuit Drills, ma'am!" I heard Kureiga say as we continued our little race. As we entered the halls, we dodged many chunins and jonins, apologizing to those who we almost bumped into. After a few seconds, I saw Kureiga running neck and neck with me. "Getting a little slow, are we?" I merely growled and kept on running. Eventually we reached the Hokage's door. We skidded to a stop in front of two guards. I leaned over, hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath. After a few seconds, I stood up straight.

"We're reporting in for Team 7 duty," I said. Kureiga, who stood up straight a few seconds later, nodded. The guards gave me a dirty look, but nodded. I merely returned the look before stepping into the Hokage's office. Much to my surprise, Kakashi-sensei was already there with Sakura and Sasuke.

"Yo!" he said lazily.

"You're on time?" I said, blinking in disbelief.

"He had to be," I heard a voice say. I turned towards the man who sat in behind a desk.

Hiruzen Sarutobi

"Hokage-sama!" Kureiga said before bowing. I smiled at him. I surveyed the whole group. When I first heard that these four were being assigned to each other, I had my worries. I actually thought about reshuffling the teams because of them. But after hearing that they were the first team ever to pass Kakashi's version of the long-running Bell Test, I decided to let the teams stay as they were.

Right below me was their official mission log, which was, as expected, empty. Right next to it was a few scrolls. I picked up the one marked with the letter D and opened it. I scanned the list of missions that were available before picking one.

"I take it you all had a good rest," he said.

"Quite well, sir," Sakura said. I nodded in agreement.

"That is good." I removed the long pipe from my mouth, breathing out smoke. "This is your first mission as a team. As such, it will be your chance to make a good first impression. Gradually, as you complete missions, you'll receive assignments of a higher… magnitude." I smiled at the four of them.

"Now here's your mission."

Sasuke

"That was bullshit!" I heard Kureiga say, breaking me out of my reverie. I turned towards him with a scowl only to see him receive a fist on the top of his head, courtesy of Sakura. He rubbed the top his head before turning towards her. "What was that for?"

"For complaining!" Sakura fired back. "That's all you did throughout our mission!"

"Can you blame me?"

I couldn't. We were walking back from the Hokage's office after we cleared so-called mission, with Kakashi in tow, reading one of his small orange books. I knew we were genin, and as such, I didn't expect us to be sent to kill an S-Class criminal or missing-nin. But I did expect other things. I expected border patrols or escort missions. I expected to be on the lookout for a thief or even finding a missing child.

I didn't expect to be doing housework for a lady in Konoha.

"I thought we were ninja," Naruto said, a scowl crossing his face. "Why were we assigned to do chores, dattebayo?"

"I agree," I said. I had to admit it. When the Dobe was right, he was right. "What's the point of doing all of these missions?"

"Maybe it's to sharpen our skills?" Sakura suggested. "After all, we're not the first genins to be put through this."

"Sharpen, our skills," Kureiga said, as if he was thinking over those words. He then asked the question that crossed all of our minds. "What kind of skills we would be sharpening? I really want to know, because quite frankly, I don't think I ever heard of a ninja striking fear in the hearts of his or her enemies because he or she was great at tending to a garden or cleaning up the house. Hey Kakashi." Our sensei looked away from his book and looked at the four of us. "What was the point of that mission?"

"To help a lady out," he deadpanned.

"That's not what I meant!"

Kakashi sighed before looking up at the sky in thought. "How do I say this?" He then turned towards the four of us again. "We do it to build trust. You see, every hidden village is governed by shinobi. As such, shinobi are responsible for practically every village matter, including its people's protection. Doing D-Rank missions allows shinobi to build trust and rapport with the many villagers that call Konoha home. This, in turn, let the villagers sleep well at night, knowing that the village is in good hands. Think about this for a moment. If you were a just a civilian, how would feel about the village you lived in if you couldn't trust people who lead it?"

"…" Kureiga nodded a few times. "You have a point, Sensei."

While Kakashi did have a good point, I wasn't interested in creating "rapport" with the village. I wanted to become stronger, and missions that equate to undergoing chores that most people do on a daily basis wasn't going help me improve my ninja skills. I had to become stronger. Especially if I wanted to rebuild my clan and kill the person who destroyed it.

"Sasuke!" I turned over and looked at Kureiga. "Glad you can join us on planet Earth. We're about to get something to eat. We wanted to know if you're coming, since Kakashi bailed." I looked over my shoulder to see that the said ninja was, in fact, nowhere to be found. I shook my head.

"I'll pass," I said before turning to go home. However, I quickly felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around to see Kureiga give me a stern look.

"Come on," he said. "We never ate together before. Think of it as team building." I thought about it for a few moments. This was my team. A team made up of a Dobe, a person who won't shut up, and a girl who can't take a hint. But it was my team, nonetheless. I sighed.

"Okay," I conceded. "But nothing sweet. I hate sweet things." Kureiga rolled his eyes, muttering a few words. During the next few moments, the three of them discussed what we should eat. Naruto suggested Ichiraku's, which was quickly shot down by Sakura. She then chose this restaurant not too far away from my house. I couldn't help but notice the slight look of fear on Naruto's face as we made our way towards the establishment. I merely ignored it. That was the last time I would do that.

Sakura

To say our dinner didn't go as planned would be an understatement. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.

It all started when we got to the restaurant, the Golden Wok. It was this placed I like eating at. It had great food and great service. We walked into the building, and made our way to the host.

"Good evening," he greeted. "Welcome to the Golden Wok and... Ah, Sakura-chan! It's nice to see you again!" I smiled back at him.

"It's nice to see you again, Kaito-san!" I greeted back. "I would like a table for four please."

"Sure thing, Sakura-chan, right this -" He paused and took a look at Naruto. "I'm sorry. But he can't come in here. He was rather unruly the last time he was here."

"That's because your waiters were jerks to me, dattebayo!" Naruto fired back, scowling. I turned towards him.

"Don't blame them for your behavior!" I snapped. Naruto looked at me pleadingly.

"But Sakura-chan…" he started. I turned away from him before he could anything else and looked at Kaito with a smile on my face.

"Kaito-san, could you please let him in. He's part of my team. Would you kindly let him in, just this once?" Kaito smiled at me.

"Okay, just this once." He then turned towards Naruto with a menacing eye. "You better behave yourself." He then walked towards the dining area with the four of us in tow, with Naruto muttering some words under his breath. We were directed to a booth not too far away from the table. Sasuke was the first to sit, and I instantly sat next to him. Kureiga took the inner seat, which put Naruto in front of me. I scowled at the seating arrangement as the menus were laid in front of us by Kaito.

"I'll send a waiter in a few minutes to take your orders," he said.

The four of us picked up our menus and looked through it.

"A lot of the stuff looks good," Kureiga said. He then nudged Naruto in the side. "They even have ramen. I'm guessing you're getting that, huh?" The blue-eyed blond shook his head.

"Ne," he said, surprising me slightly. "I only eat ramen from one restaurant from Konoha." This brought a chuckle from Kureiga. Naruto then looked at me. "What do you suggest, Sakura?" I looked up at the ceiling for a few moments.

"The Teriyaki Yakitori here is always good," I answered. "I think we should get that one."

"Sounds good to me," Naruto said.

"It _has_ been a while since I had Yakitori," Kureiga mused. He then looked at Sasuke. "What do you think, Sasuke?"

"…I'll have some." I smiled. The waiter came, and we all put in our order. Everything was going well, then. Kureiga even entertained us with stories from his father's travels before our food came in.

That's when everything went wrong. We finally received our food. After saying our thanks, all four of us went to work on our meal.

"This is pretty good, Sakura," Kureiga said. Sasuke nodded in agreement. Naruto, on the other hand, merely scowled.

"I don't like it," he said. Kureiga scoffed.

"How can you not like it?" I asked. I then scowled. "Are you trying to stir trouble again?"

"No, Sakura-chan," he replied, putting his hands. "It just doesn't taste very good, dattebayo!"

"What's wrong, Dobe?" Sasuke said in a teasing tone. "Not used to fine dining?" Before Naruto could reply, Kureiga reached over and picked up a stick of yakitori from Naruto's plate. He turned over a few times, looking at it before bringing the stick towards his lips. He opened his mouth and but on the stick, tearing a piece of chicken and chewed it a few times. He then dropped this stick on the table, reached for a napkin, and brought it under his mouth. He spat out the piece he was chewing before he folded up the napkin.

"This tastes like crap," he declared. I raised an eyebrow before reaching for a stick. Sasuke took a stick as well. I took a bite and promptly spat it out. Sasuke did the same thing. Naruto narrowed his eyes as he reached for a stick off of Kureiga's plate. He bit a piece off of it. He chewed it before swallowing. His eyes dropped.

"Your food is good," Naruto said. He then stood up from his seat. "I got to go. I have some training to do, dattebayo." He walked away, scowling evident on his face. He accidently bumped his shoulder in to Kaito. He said a quick apology to the host before walking out of sight. Kaito scowled in his direction before he walked over to our table.

"I hope you enjoyed your meal," he said. "I also hope that boy wasn't causing any trou-"

"What's the name of the cook who made our food?" Kureiga said abruptly. Kaito paused for a second before he smiled.

"Ah, the cook was Kazuo. Why you ask?"

"Would you please tell him to come out here? I like to thank him for the meal, personally." Kureiga put on a wide, exaggerated smile. Kaito nodded as he walked away. I looked over at Kureiga, my eyes narrowed.

"What are you going to do?" I asked him. He turned towards me with the same smile.

"I'm not going to do anything _too _harsh," he said.

Kureiga Kazama

"…and then he threatened to kill me. And then…"

I was in the Hokage's office along with Sakura to my left and Sasuke to my right. I felt the killer intent radiating from them. I, myself, was giving off killer intent as the chef explained his story. Behind me were two jonin. One of them was Kurenai Yuhi, a brown haired kunoichi who wore a white dress with a lone, red sleeve. Underneath her dress was a chainmail short. I remembered her from earlier today. She was the kunoichi Naruto and I dodged during our little race. The other was Asuma Sarutobi, son of the Hokage. He was a man with short black hair, which was covered by a black bandana. He also had a beard that ran along his jaw line and was connected to his to his hair by two thin sideburns. He had an unlit cigarette hanging from his mouth.

The story the chef told to Sarutobi-sama was, for the most part, was true. I did punch him across the restaurant, which resulted in many disturbed patrons, as well as some property damage. I did threaten to kill him. And, as he was about to say, I did give him a swift kick in the nuts. However, he conveniently left out why I threatened him. The Hokage nodded and turned towards me. I looked down towards the ground, shifting my footing for a second.

"Is this true, Kureiga?" he calmly asked. As calm as his voice was, though, I couldn't help but detect a hint of desperate hope in his voice. I couldn't blame him. I don't think he likes hearing about shinobi wreaking havoc in restaurants.

"That story covers _most_ of it," I admitted as I looked up, making sure to put emphasis on the word "most". The Hokage raised an eyebrow.

"Most, you say?" He took a puff of his pipe before blowing out a stream of smoke into the air. "So, I'm guessing you have a reason for your violent behavior."

"Yes, I do. I have reason to believe that my teammate's food was purposely tampered with."

"What?" the chef interjected, anger present in his voice. "You dare accuse me of performing such a heinous act! I swear, I should…" I looked at him, not even masking my killing intent. He went silent very quickly. I turned back to the Hokage.

"That's a very serious accusation," the Hokage said. However, he didn't sound so dismissive of it. "What reason do you have?"

"My whole team put in an order for Teriyaki Yakitori. My order came back great, as well as Sasuke's and Sakura's. However, Naruto's meal tasted like shit."

"Watch your language!" I heard Sakura say. "You're in the Hokage's presence."

"My apologies, but that is the truth. All three of us tasted his meal, thinking he was kidding, but it was bad. It was not even fit for a prisoner. And I highly doubt it was a mistake, because if this chef managed to cook three orders without making a mistake, he could have made a fourth one that was fit for a paying customer." Sarutobi-sama's eyes moved from me, to Sakura, to Sasuke.

"Is this true?"

"Yes, Hokage-Sama."

"…It's true."

The Hokage nodded before looking straight at me. I could see the gears turning in his head, trying to figure out what he was going to do about the situation. The gears then stopped.

"Kureiga Kazama." I cringed at the mention of my whole name. "I understand that you are highly defensive of your teammates, and I commend that part of you. I also understand your anger However, I am highly disappointed in the way you handled the situation. Because of what you did, I have no choice but to dock you two missions pay. Not only that, you will report tomorrow morning to fix any and all damage you inflicted on the restaurant and pay for the meal you ordered last night. Is that clear?"

"…Crystal."

"Good. You are dismissed." Sighing to myself, I brought my hands together in a seal before doing a quick substitution. I reappeared at the foot of the stairs that lead up to the office. I knew I was going to catch heat for leaving a log in his office, but I really didn't care at the moment. I was pissed off. Not only was I docked pay, but I had to wake up in the morning to repair a restaurant that purposely ruined Naruto's meal. And I was still hungry. I took a deep breath, trying to keep my anger in check, before walking the streets. As I made my way home, I saw many villagers giving me looks of fear or caution. Apparently, I was doing a bad job of keeping my killer intent in check. I didn't care at the moment. I had a decent day ruined by screwed up evening. I shook my head, sarcastically muttering under my breath about how just wonderful my day was.

"You know, you should try and do a better job of keeping your temper in check," I heard a voice said. I stopped in my tracks and looked towards my right. I saw the same kunoichi from earlier. I looked around, trying to figure out where she came from. "I was assigned to make sure you get home without incident. However, I want to talk to you for a moment. Come with me." She turned and walked towards a certain direction. I stood there for a few seconds before walked after her. She didn't sound like she was giving me a choice.

Kurenai

I guided him to small café that I frequented. At this time, the establishment was rather empty, so we were able to get a table and ordered to small meals. I ordered some yakitori, which caused Kureiga to cringe slightly. The black-clad boy ordered rice balls with miso soup. I stayed silent as I observed the boy. He looked off into the distance to his right, his eyebrows drawn together in a frown.

"You look agitated," I said. He looked down at the table, his expression not changing. "What's bothering you exactly? Is it what happened to Naruto?" He looked off to his right again, his tongue pressed against his cheek. He then looked at me, making eye contact for the first time since I caught up to him in the street.

"I didn't know how bad Naruto got it until tonight," he said slowly. "I mean, I knew villagers hated him, but this was just ridiculous. Never, in my whole life, have I seen someone get their order tampered with. I mean, I've heard about it. But I never thought I'd see it happen."

"So you really think the chef had an agenda?" I said this in a neutral tone. I didn't want him to think that I didn't believe him. On the contrary, I would have believed him even if Sasuke and Sakura didn't back him up.

"Of course," he said with a scoff. "When we first got there, the host was telling Sakura that Naruto wasn't even allowed to be there because of Naruto acting 'rather unruly' the last time he was there, which Naruto blamed it on the waiters on being jerks to him. If it wasn't for Sakura, he wouldn't have been allowed in. And then when we all ordered our food. Each of us ordered the same thing, and Naruto's order is the only one that came back tasting like sh… crap." His face became apologetic. I, on the other hand, was quite amused by his near slip. He looked down at the table again for a few moments. He then looked up at me. "Is it true what they say? That it's against the law to say why people hate Naruto?" I was caught off guard by that question.

"Where did you hear that?" I asked.

"From Teuchi and my dad," he explained. "Mostly from Teuchi, though. I was eating with Naruto the night before at Ichiraku's, and when he left, Teuchi told me that the villagers hate Naruto, and when I asked why, he told me he can't tell me the specific reason, though he basically told me that the reason is crap and people just can't let go the past. And when I asked my dad, he told me the same thing, minus the 'reason is crap' part."

"I see," I said, nodding my head a few times. I then sighed. "What you hear is partly true. You see, there's a… secret… regarding Naruto and something that happened a long time ago. Because of that, the villagers can't tell anyone the reason they harbor so much anger towards Naruto without revealing that secret. Like Teuchi, and, from what it looks like, yourself, I don't believe that Naruto deserves the treatment he has been getting throughout his whole life. The law doesn't really apply to him though. He can tell whoever he feels like telling."

"So all I have to do is ask him?" he said. I shook my head.

"It won't be that simple. You would have to gain his trust, and wait for him to bring it up." Kureiga scoffed.

"What, so you think that Naruto can't trust me?" he said, sounding offended. I glared back at him.

"Let me tell you something Kureiga. The only reason you don't hold any animosity towards Naruto is because you don't know the details of this secret. While it's easy for you to say that you can be trusted and that you won't look at Naruto in a different light, you won't know that until it happens, _if _it ever happens. For all he knows, you're probably just as bad as the chef you laid into earlier tonight."

Kureiga fell silent, and I can see the gears turning in his head to allow what I said to be digested. He then looked down at the table with a scowl on his face. I frowned slightly.

"Hey," I said. He looked up at me. I gave him a reassuring. "Just, don't worry about it now. Just be there for him. Be a friend. You're already doing an admirable job of doing that, though I suggest going about that in a less… violent matter." He nodded as our food came. "Now let's eat."

Kakashi

It was the afternoon after the incident. We were back at the usual training area. I didn't get on Kureiga too much, though I did advise him to let cooler heads prevail.

I looked at the four of them.

"Since some of us seem to be in a fighting mood, I figured it would be best to test your taijutsu," I announced. "So, we're going to spar." My eyes landed on Naruto and Kureiga. "You two first."

"Yosh!" Naruto yelled as he stood up. Kureiga did the same, smiling at the orange-clad boy.

"Are you ready for this, Short Stack?" he asked. Naruto merely smiled.

"Just bring it!"

"You two will go on my signal," I declared. They nodded at me before increasing the distance between them. I looked at the two of them as they got into their fighting stance. Kureiga's stance was solid. Nothing special. It was the basic stance taught at the academy. But it did the job of hiding his kill line. His feet were shoulders length apart, his right shoulder faced towards Naruto and raised slightly. Though his eyes were locked on Naruto, his face was slightly turned to his left.

Naruto's stance, on the other hand, was sloppy. While his arms were up, and his were shoulders length apart, his kill line was exposed for everyone to see as his body faced Kureiga.

"Alright," I said calmly. "Go."

Naruto quickly ran at Kureiga as the latter waited. Naruto reared back a punch, broadcasting his attack. As soon as he was within striking distance, Naruto sent the wound up punch towards his Kureiga's face. The black-clad genin brought his left hand forward and grabbed hold of Naruto's punch. He grunted as he was pushed back for a moment. He then pulled the held fist forward, pulling Naruto along with it. Simultaneously, he brought his left knee upward into Naruto's stomach.

"Come on, is that the best you got?" Kureiga taunted.

The said ninja doubled over in pain, but then suddenly brought his right fist upward, aiming for Kureiga's chin. Kureiga leaned backward, narrowly missing the attack. He then straightened himself and sent a right hook across Naruto's jaw. As Naruto stumbled backward, Kureiga dropped down and swept his right leg around. The tip of his toes impacted against the heel of the blond's right left foot, causing it to move forward against its will.

"Don't fall," the black-clad nin said.

Naruto shot his arms out, spinning them around to try and keep his balance. Kureiga quickly back flipped, catching Naruto's jaw with his left foot and raising his fellow genin off the ground. He completed his motion, landing on his feet before leaning on his left leg and thrust his right foot into Naruto's stomach, causing Naruto to go flying towards a tree.

"I didn't know you can fly, Short Stack!"

Much to my surprise, however, Naruto twisted into the air and planted his feet on the tree before launching himself at Kureiga. Kureiga's eyes widened as Naruto's fist impacted against his jaw. Kureiga staggered backward and a small stream of blood flowed from the right corner of his mouth. Naruto did not let up. While still in the air, he spun around and landed a kick on the back of Kureiga's neck. Kureiga screamed out in pain as he fell to his knees. The orange-clad ninja gave a foxy smile as he landed on his feet behind Kureiga. Kureiga tried to get on his feet, only to be kicked across the grass field. After rolling a few times, Kureiga jumped to his feet, skidding to a stop. He ran after Naruto, bad intentions in his eyes. Naruto ran forward as well, his earlier smile replaced by a determined scowl. Naruto was the first one to attack, sending a wayward punch. Kureiga dodged, albeit barely, and brought his hands forward. He grabbed Naruto, placing him in a clinch. He pulled forward Naruto's head downward on to his upcoming right knee. He then sent his left knee into the blonde's face. He repeated the action, his knees alternating and striking against Naruto's face like the beak of a woodpecker.

"That's enough," I called out. Kureiga stopped in his place for a few moments. His breathing was shallow before he took a deep breath. He then released his clinch on Naruto, who promptly fell to the floor. Kureiga narrowed his eyes down at him before reaching down and picking him up by the arm. Naruto groaned before looking up at my direction. He had a black eye that was swollen shut and a broken nose, with blood running down the side of his mouth.

"I was a little too harsh," Kureiga said as he carried Naruto back to the group. He then turned towards Naruto with a small smile. "You weren't too bad." Naruto merely nodded as he moved away from Kureiga to stand on his own.

"Not bad?" Sakura said. "Naruto, your taijutsu was horrible! Do you do anything right?" Naruto looked down at the ground. Kureiga rolled his eyes before opening his mouth.

"Alright," I said before Kureiga could say anything. "Sasuke, you spar with Sakura. Kureiga, Naruto, you two come with me." I walked into the forest with the two of them in tow. I didn't stop walking until I reached the lake where I, for lack of better term, fought Naruto during our first training session. I came to a stop and turned to look at them.

"Kureiga, your taijutsu was… commendable. Your technique was pretty solid all around. With that said, it could use more work. You drop your guard too easily and you take too much time to recover. Naruto…" I paused for a few seconds. "I like the way you used your environment in your attacks. However, your taijutsu could use a lot of work. You left parts of your body exposed, and you broadcast your attacks. Now, I pulled you two aside to let you know you might be going under supplemental training within the next few days. The fact of the matter is… you two are way behind Sasuke and Sakura in that area." Naruto scowled at that statement. I wasn't surprised. The last thing he wanted to hear was that he was outclassed by Sasuke. Kureiga merely clenched his jaw. "I'll keep you two posted and let you know if the arrangement I have in mind comes into fruition. Understood?"

"Yes, Sensei," they both said. I nodded. "Naruto, you're dismissed. Kureiga, I need to speak to you further." Naruto turned and walked away. I waited until Naruto was out of earshot before I spoke again. "Kureiga, why did you go off on Naruto earlier?"

"You mean after I took that combo from him?" he asked. I nodded. "It was nothing personal, it's just it's the first time someone had hit me that hard before." I raised an eyebrow. "It's true. I thought he broke my jaw for a moment. And when he kicked me in the back of the neck, I thought the gloves were off." I nodded.

"I see." I was glad to see that there was no animosity between the two of them."It seems to me that we have ourselves a heavy hitter on this team. Now if only we could get him to land those hits. Alright, you're dismissed. I'll go back and check on the last spar." Kureiga scoffed when I said that.

"Yeah, we all know what happened," Kureiga said. "Sakura fainted at the thought of being alone with Sasuke." He ran into the trees as I made my way back to the other two. When I reached the area I left him in, I saw Sasuke standing over an unconscious Sakura. I looked at him.

"She fainted," he said. I immediately slapped my palm against my face.

Naruto

"Yo!" I heard someone call out. I looked backward and spotted Kureiga hopping from branch to branch. He stepped on one last branch before jumping and landing next to me. He narrowed his eyes at me.

"What happened to your black eye?" he asked. I blinked a few times, confused. "It's gone." I merely shrugged.

"I heal fast," I said. "I've always been able to heal fast."

"I see." Kureiga nodded. "Look, sorry about kneeing you in the face." He paused for a moment. "Repeatedly."

"It's okay." We both started walking again. All I could think about was me being worse than Sasuke-teme. I was losing to Sasuke-teme. "Kuso!"

"What's wrong Naruto?" Kureiga asked. My hands balled into fists.

"I'm worse than Sasuke!" I shook my head. "I'm worse than Sasuke-teme, dattebayo!"

"Don't worry about it, Short Stack. You were kind of at a disadvantage anyway."

"What do mean?" I looked at him, scowl on my face.

"Sasuke comes from a ninja clan. Specifically, the Uchiha Clan. Ninjas that comes from a clan tend have an advantage because, aside from the training they receive from the academy, they receive extra training from within their own clan. Sasuke's been clan-trained long before he was the last Uchiha left."

"…" I stayed silent for a few second. I then looked over at Kureiga. "What's a clan?"

"A clan is basically a ninja family. Each clan usually has their own hiden or blood limits. Or even both."

"What are those?" Kureiga chuckled slightly.

"Hiden and Blood Limits are techniques that are exclusive to the clan who developed them. Hiden, while not impossible to learn by members from people outside of the clan, our only taught in the family. Usually, it's stuff like fighting styles. Blood Limits, however, are impossible to learn because they are genetic. Those include abilities like the Byakugan and the Sharingan."

I looked ahead as we approached the village streets. I looked up at Kureiga, having one more question.

"How come you know so much about clans?"

"I'm a delivery boy, and have been since I was six years old," he started to explain. "During my time, I came in contact with many people from different clans. Over time, I learned about the different clans by interacting with those people." I thought about what he said for a few moments before I nodded in understanding. "Look, you're not the only one who is behind Sasuke in that department." He narrowed his eyes. "I don't like losing to Sasuke either. But then again, I don't like losing to _anyone_." He shrugged. "So, are you up for dinner?"

"I can't," I said, frowning. "I need the money to buy some kunai." Kureiga nodded slightly.

"Have you ever thought about getting a civilian job?" he asked. I shook my head.

"Why should I?" I asked.

"For extra income. It will help pay for any extra stuff you need."

"That is true. But what's the point? The shop owners don't even want my business. Why would they want me working for them, dattebayo?"

"That is true," Kureiga said, narrowing his eyes. "Tell you what. I'll talk to a friend of mine, and I'll let you know if something is arranged."

"You actually think your friend would employ me?" I asked. Kureiga shrugged.

"It depends. I won't promise anything, except that I'll try."

I nodded, smiling. "Okay. Well, I'll see you tomorrow. See ya, dattebayo!"

"Likewise," Kureiga said. I nodded before jumping towards the rooftops.

Kureiga

I watched as he took the rooftops to go wherever he was going. I guess he went home, but I had no idea where he lived.

I remembered the conversation I had with Kurenai-sensei the night before, and couldn't help but grimace. _Will I be like these villagers if I learned Naruto's secret?_ It was an unsettling thought for me, mostly because I didn't like hypocrites. Just the evening before, I punched out someone just for mistreating Naruto. Will I become like that chef in the future? I shook my head and looked up at the sky, derailing that train of thought. I saw that the sun, while not that high in the sky, wasn't that low either. Nodding to myself, I hung a right and headed up the street, my eyes looking left and right to search a certain store. I finally came to a stop in front of my destination.

"Bingo," I said before opening the door and stepping inside. It was the first weapons shop I go to whenever I need to buy some supplies. It sold everything, from the basic equipment like kunai, shuriken, steel wires and explosive tags, to some of the more advanced weaponry, like weapon summoning scrolls, swords, and maces, as well as creations made by the family who owned the establishment.

At the front desk was my friend Tenten. She was a fellow genin who graduated a year before I did. She had black hair that was held in two buns, with a couple of bangs hanging over her forehead protector. She also had a pair of brown eyes that seemed to be focused on something. She wore a pink sleeveless shirt with red trousers.

We first met when I tried to use one of the training areas to work on my aiming. As I approached, I noticed the ground was littered with weapons of all kinds. Swords, kunai, shuriken, katana, and a whole bunch of weapons that I never even saw before. Then I saw her, flipping in the air, throwing kunai, and hitting every single target. I whistled in appreciation, catching her attention, and I told her she was awesome. Little did I know at the time, I began a friendship with Konoha's Weapons Mistress. We grew close over the years, and I started seeing her as an older sister. She taught quite a few things, including the usefulness of the explosive tags.

Tenten looked up as the door closed.

"Hey Kureiga," she said with a smile. I nodded back.

"Tenten-neechan," I said. "How's everything been?" I walked towards the desk.

"Everything's good. Just taking some downtime after the mission." She stood. "So, what do you need? More kunai?" I shook my head.

"No, I'm good for now." I paused for a moment. "I do have a favor to ask though." Tenten raised an eyebrow.

"What would that be?" she asked.

"Well, you know how your folks said that they could use some extra work around the shop? Well, a friend of mine could use some extra income. So I figured, if it's possible, maybe you can talk your parents about hiring him." Tenten brought a finger to her chin in thought.

"That would take a load off of my folks… and me as well. Who is this friend of yours?"

"Well…" I chuckled slightly. "You may have heard of him. His name is…" I swallowed before continuing. "…Naruto Uzumaki."

The saying "so quiet, you could hear a pin drop" is thrown around so much that, more often than not, it's an exaggeration. However, as quiet as the room became, that saying would have been an accurate observation. Tenten's head slowly turned towards me and her eyes narrowed. I took a step back. I felt like a target under her eyes. Even to this day, I'm not so sure what prevented me from running out of the door in fear though I figured that even if I did run, it would have been futile. I was not going to out run her kunai.

"Naruto. Uzumaki. You want me, to talk my parents, into hiring, Naruto Uzumaki. Am I hearing that correctly?" I swallowed again before nodding. "Why would I want to do that? I've heard about him. All he ever does is pull pranks. What makes you think he can take a job seriously?"

"Well, we did clear a mission yesterday without any problems," I said. "Look, Nee-chan, do you trust me?"

"It's not _you_ that I don't trust," Tenten said as she walked around the desk that separated us. "I'm just not so sure I can trust Naruto, especially after what I heard." I nodded a few times.

"I see," I said a quiet tone. "But, let me ask you something. Have you ever… talked with the boy?" She paused for a second, looking up at the ceiling in thought.

"No… can't say that I have," she admitted.

"Then how do you know he can't be trusted?" I replied, annoyance creeping into my voice.

"Have you not seen how the other villagers react to him? Obviously, he's too immature for his own good if everyone in the village has a story to tell about him." I rolled my eyes.

"Oh give me a break. I don't see the villagers getting all up in arms about some of the annoying quirks every other shinobi has."

"Like who?"

"Nee-chan, I believe your team is a poster-picture example." I sighed. "Look, he's not a bad guy. At first I thought he was this bad guy, especially with all this talk I heard from villagers. But he's…" I paused to find the right words. "Let's just say he doesn't deserve the crap he gets. Just give him a chance. Get to know him. And he screws up, I'll take full responsibility." Tenten sighed.

"If you really feel that strong about it…" she said. "I'll talk to my parents. I can't promise anything except that I'll try." I smiled.

"Thanks, Nee-chan. I owe you one again." She waved her hand dismissively.

"Don't worry about it, Otouto. But you better be right about him. Because if he screws up… just remember that I know where you live."


	3. Geniuses of Hard Work

Kakashi

I was awake rather early that day. As a matter of fact, I was up earlier than usual. But it was the only way I could meet up with a certain friend of mine. I walked through the forest, looking left and right as the sun rose behind me, burning the sky with a pink hue. As I neared my destination, I started to hear the sound of an object striking a tree with great force.

"Good job, Lee!" I heard a voice I said. "Now show me a roundhouse!"

"Yosh!"

I chuckled to myself. As the training area came into view, I saw the person who I was trying to meet: Maito Gai.

He was a fellow jonin who specialized in taijutsu. He's slightly taller than me and wore a dark green full body suit under a slightly lighter green flak vest. On top of his head was the shiniest bowl cut I have ever seen. Around his lower legs were orange weights he used to help him train. Other than his unusual appearance, he was also known for his ridiculously rigorous training practices. He put in more work into perfecting a simple punch than most shinobi put into perfecting a lethal technique. The whole focus of his physical training was to find the limits his body could reach and surpassing it. If he ran 400 laps straight one day, he'll reach for 600 the next day. If he can smash 40 rocks with his fists one day, he'll aim for 80 the next day. And no, I'm not exaggerating. But that's mostly because of the taijutsu he uses: Goken, The Strong Fist Style.

The aim of Strong Fist is to inflict external and skeletal damage on an opponent, perfect for a heavy hitter like Naruto.

At the time, Maito was, as usual, watching over his favorite student, Rock Lee. The large-eyed genin with the large eyebrows dressed exactly like his master, with the exception of the flak vest (and that was only because the flak vests were reserved for shinobi with the rank of chunin or higher). Lee, like Naruto, was dead last of his class through no fault his own. He had a defective chakra network, which made it impossible for him to perform even the most basic of techniques that require chakra. Bent on being a ninja, he took to taijutsu like a bear to honey. He became a testament to Gai's teaching abilities, becoming the only person in Konoha, and possibly the world, that became a shinobi without learning an ounce of ninjutsu, genjutsu, or any technique involving chakra.

Lee was striking a training log, leaving deep grooves in the log. He sent one more roundhouse kick, causing the log to crack.

"Impressive," I said. Lee's eyes widened as the both of them turned towards me.

"Greetings, Kakashi-sensei!" he said, bowing towards me. I returned the bow. I then faced Gai, who gave me his trademark smile, which was literally so shiny that it made a "ping" sound.

"Kakashi-kun! I see you're here to witness power of youth!" he exclaimed. I merely nodded.

"Your student has developed quite nicely," I told him as I walked over to the two of them. I stopped in front of them and placed my hand on top if Lee's head and ruffled his hair. "There's something I need to talk to you about, though. It's… actually a favor. A huge favor." Gai nodded before he turned towards Lee.

"Lee, go run a few-"

"He can stay," I said suddenly. Lee looked up at me with a questioning look. "Gai, I need you to take two of my students under your wing for a while. Just for a few hours a day. Their taijutsu could use some work. One of them could definitely benefit from learning the Strong Fist style." Gai raised his eyebrows in interest.

"A genin made for Goken?" he said. "Such youthful students are hard to come by these days. Who is this young one? Tell me about him."

"Well," I said, scratching the side of my head. "I take it that you know about Naruto Uzumaki?" Gai slowly nodded. "He wants to be the Hokage. As such, he wants to be strong as possible, as soon as possible. From what I can tell, he hits pretty hard. As hard as… well, you Lee." Lee eyes widened, which was a feat in and of itself since his eyes were already abnormally large at its normal size. I may have laid it on thick, but "Problem is, however, his taijutsu is very sloppy. During a sparring session, he was handled by someone whose taijutsu was basic, albeit solid."

"A student with high ambition and immense strength…" Gai rubbed his chin. "How youthful…"

"Gai-sensei!" Lee started to say. "You should train Naruto! I would like to train with someone who contains the Fire of Youth like we do!"

"Indeed." Gai then looked back at me. "What about the other?"

"The other one is Kureiga Kazama. He was the one who sparred with Naruto. His taijutsu isn't so bad. But I think he can benefit from learning… a certain variant of the Strong Fist." It was Gai's turn for his eyes widen.

"You think he could learn… _that_ style?" he asked. I nodded.

"I believe he can. I noticed that he likes to use certain parts of his body while attacking. Making him learn a style that would take advantage of his tendencies will make him deadlier in the long run. So, what do you say?"

Gai gave me his signature smile, complete with the "ping!".

"All right," he said. "By the time I am done with them, they will be spewing the flames of youth from every pore of their skin!"

Naruto

I sat at my dining table, sipping the broth from my cup of ramen. It wasn't as good as Ichiraku's, but it would do for breakfast. Normally I would have looked out of the window, it was boarded up. While I was gone, someone threw a brick at it. The brick was wrapped in a piece of paper with the word "MONSTER" written on it. It's been that way since I moved into this place. Every now and again, some villager would throw a random object through my window, calling me a monster through a written or verbal message. Iruka-sensei would usually apologize. When I was younger, I'd cry into his chest. However, I stopped crying a few years ago and retaliated with a smile on my face. As far as I was concerned, the villagers were doing me a favor. They were just making it easier for me to pick out my precious people when I become Hokage.

I looked over at the rest of my apartment towards my right. It wasn't exactly the largest place to live in. It was only two rooms, a bathroom and a kitchen. Half of one of the rooms was used as the dining area was eating in now. It was made up of small table with just enough room for four people. I only had two chairs for the table however. Not a lot of people come to visit me, let alone in groups. One the other half of the room was a perfectly intact black couch that was thrown out. (Honestly, who throws away a perfectly good couch?) Just down the short hall was my bedroom, which also had a bathroom in it. Iruka-sensei was nice enough to get me a mattress and bed frame, along with some sheets, and the Hokage was able to give me a brown dresser for my clothes. It wasn't the best place to live, but it was my home.

I looked over to my left as I heard a knock on the door. I laid my fork on the table and pulled a kunai from my holster as I stood up. I slowly made my towards the door, gripping my kunai as my prepared myself for a villager who was idiotic enough to try and attack me. I stopped in front of the door before placing my hand on knob. I twisted it and opened it, only to see Kakashi-sensei in front of me.

"Yo!" he greeted. Though I couldn't be sure, I was pretty sure he was smiling. I sighed in relief as I put away my kunai. He was carrying a basket of vegetables in one hand. "I hope I didn't startle you."

"No, Sensei," I said. "I don't get visitors often, dattebayo!" I smiled slightly. "What brings you here?" As I said that, I moved to the side, allowing him to come in. He stepped in and looked left and right.

"I like what you have done with the place," Kakashi commented. I sat back in my original spot, with Kakashi taking the remaining chair to my right before placing the bowl of vegetables on my table. "Well, remember what we talked about after your sparring session with Kureiga." I nodded. "Well, the arrangement has been made. You and Kureiga will be meeting with a… special friend of mine. He will discuss with you two your training schedules. He may be a weird person, but he's the best at his area of expertise. Your taijutsu will be topnotch." I frowned slightly.

"Is taijutsu really that important?" I asked.

"Taijutsu is extremely important. Taijutsu does not require chakra to be used. As such, a ninja with a solid foundation in taijutsu can still be able to defend himself when his chakra runs out." He then tilted his head. "Besides, you want to surpass Sasuke, don't you?" I was mid-sip when he said that. I coughed as some of the broth travelled down the wrong tube. I heard him chuckle. "Trust me Naruto, you'll be a better ninja for this." He then stood up. "Well, I have to go. Don't want to be late."

"When are you ever on time?" I said as he walked towards my door, scowl on my face. I then looked at the bowl of vegetables on my table. "You're forgetting your vegetables." He stopped and looked at me.

"They are for you," he said.

"But I hate vegetables, dattebayo!"

He sighed for a moment. "You can't go through life eating ramen alone. Ramen has almost no nutrition. Eating nothing but ramen can stunt your growth, as well as lead to other health problems. As a ninja, you'll need the proper nutrition. And with your new training, that's doubly important." He opened the door before taking one last look at me. "Be at Training Area 19 at twelve o'clock. Ja ne."

I looked back at the bowl. It had many of the usual vegetables, including carrots, broccoli, peppers, and even an eggplant. I narrowed my eyes before sighing. I hated vegetables, and I wanted to learn cool ninjutsu like Kakashi-sensei, leaving me with little interest in Taijutsu. But if eating vegetables and learning taijutsu will help surpass Sasuke, and, more importantly, become the Hokage, then so be it.

Later on that day, I made my way over to the training area. I've been there many times before. When I was younger, I went there many times before to collect kunai and shurikens when I needed some. For some reasons, whenever I visited there, the grounded was always littered with them. I even found a katana once, which I kept under my bed since that day.

I reached the area, finding Kureiga standing in the middle of it. Way off in front of him was a dummy mounted on a post. The ground was void of grass, leaving nothing but bare soil. Four unnlit torches, that were taller than me, circled the training ground. I figured they were used to light up the area at night.

"Oi, Kureiga!" I yelled out. He turned around and looked over at me before nodding. I walked over towards him. "Is he here yet?" Kureiga looked around the area before giving me a look.

"Does he _look like_ he's here?" Kureiga replied. He then looked up at the sky. "I think we might be a little early."

"Ah, but being early gives you more time to fan the Fires of Youth!" I heard a booming voice exclaim. I looked around, trying to find the source of it. Then I saw two shadows streak from the trees. Kureiga and I both pulled out a kunai as the "shadows", which turned out to be two shinobi. One of them was rather tall, even taller than Kureiga. He gave off a smiled that was only rivaled by his bowl cut in shininess. I never saw someone with such an intense appearance.

The guy younger boy right next to him was giving him a run for his money, however. The boy was as tall as Kureiga, and seemed to be a little older than us.

"Welcome," the taller man said. "I'm Maito Gai. And this is my pupil, Rock Lee."

"Please to meet you both," the boy said, bowing towards the two of us.

"I will be training you two in Taijutsu from now on, with Lee helping out in my teachings." His smile disappeared, leaving a solemn expression on his face. "This training will not be easy. In all honesty, I will be pushing your bodies to their extreme limits. Once we find those limits, I'll push you even farther. By the time I am done with you two, you will be faster. You will be stronger. You will be more resilient. And you _will_ be a better ninja. However, for this happen, I can't be the only one pushing you. You, as well, have to push yourselves. The styles I will teach you are not for everyone. Only those who burn with the Fire of Youth can learn what I have to teach. In short, you must really want it. Is that understood?"

"Hai!" Kureiga quickly said. I nodded fiercely.

"Is that so? Then state your name and ambitions, starting with you!" He pointed straight at me.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki!" I exclaimed. "And I want to… No. I'm going to be the best Hokage this village has ever seen!"

"And I'm Kureiga Kazama!" Kureiga declared. "I'm going to be the head of ANBU!"

Gai and Lee smiled at us.

"The Fire of Youth burns bright in you two!" Gai said approvingly, with Lee nodding in agreement. I raised my eyebrows in surprised. Normally, people would laugh at me when I tell them that. However, they didn't laugh. If anything, they were encouraging. "Now we shall begin. Kureiga, since I'm going to be teaching you something a little different, I want you to meet me here at nine o'clock."

Kureiga paused for a second. He then nodded before jumping into the trees. Gai then turned towards me.

"Starting tomorrow, your training will start at six A.M." My eyes widened. "It will be best. From six to nine, we put in three hours of training without you having to worry about it interfering with your team activities." I nodded slowly. "Now, I will be teaching you Goken: The Hard Fist Style. The focus of this style is to cause external damage on, and break the bones of, your opponents. As such, you must be able to hit as hard as possible, as fast as possible. I want to gauge where you are now. So you will be sparring with Lee. Lee, get ready!"

"Yosh!" Lee yelled out as he went into his stance. I looked over at him before dropping into my own stance, looking straight into his eyes.

"Begin," Gai said.

When I sparred with Kureiga, I figured out that he was a lot faster than me. However, as I was about to figure out, he dead slow compared to Lee. In a blink of the eye, he was already right in front of me. In instant, I staggered backwards after receiving a hard fist across my face. I sent out a punch, but he merely ducked it before thrusting two palms into my stomach. I bent over, holding my stomach. That was a mistake. Lee crouched down with his right shoulder facing me. He put all of his weight on his left leg before using that leg to push himself upward. As he did so, he brought his right leg up and planted his foot against my face. The force of his kick forced me on back. I held my face in pain before removing my hands. I then rolled to my right, feeling air rushing pass my left cheek as I narrowly dodged the heel of his foot. I quickly jumped to my feet, and he sent jumping roundhouse kick towards my head. I ducked under it, but he merely dropped down on his left foot and sent another spinning kick, with this one hitting my left knee.

It would continue like this for thirty minutes straight. No matter what I did, he had a fast answer for it. There was nothing I could do. What made it even more annoying was the fact that he smiled throughout the whole fight. He was having fun with this. I knew that for a fact. During the whole spar, I only landed one hit, and that was because he barely missed with a straight left. I ducked under it, feeling his fist ruffling my hair before ramming my left elbow into his stomach. He slid backward, holding his stomach with his for a moment. He looked down at himself for a moment before he looked back at me, smiling and nodding.

"That's enough!" Gai called out. I stood my ground, breathing deeply as I tried to catch my breath. "Impressive."

"Impressive?" I repeated in disbelief, looking over at Gai with a scowl on my face. "Lee wiped the floor with, dattebayo!" I looked down in disappointment. "Sakura-chan is right. My taijutsu is horrible." I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up at my shoulder, then looked up to see Gai, who down at me with a solemn expression.

"I'm going to be frank with you, Naruto. You do need a lot of work. However, you shouldn't let the fires of youth burn out so quickly. I, myself, have seen worse, and you have a lot for me to work with. Your strength is admirable, and you're the first person I have ever seen keep up with Lee for that long."

"Hai!" Lee said in agreement. "Please don't give up, Naruto-kun!" I blinked a few times. Only two other people called me Naruto-kun before. "I would like have another fellow Genius of Hard Work."

"Genius of Hard Work?" I said. Gai nodded.

"In quite a few cases, students in the academy would have an advantage. They could be a part of a strong clan and have knowledge of secret techniques and blood limits. Others just have a gift for certain areas. However, there are people who possess none of them. Take Lee, for example." I looked over at Lee. "He is unable to use ninjutsu and genjutsu because he can't properly mold his chakra. He was written off as a dead last. However, he's one of the best there is in taijutsu. But it wasn't something he was made for. He put in his heart and soul into learning Strong Fist and perfecting it. And that's what a genius of hard work is: someone who puts their heart and soul into becoming the best they can be to achieve their goals."

Even to this day, I remembered that day. Not only because of those words which will stick with me to death, but also because I realized that there were people who wanted me to succeed. Gai and Lee wanted me to become a better ninja. Kakashi-sensei sent me to Gai for that same reason.

I nodded in understanding. "Alright! I'll make sure that you'll have a genius of hard work as Hokage. And that Hokage will be me, dattebayo!"

"YOSH!!!" I heard Lee yelled, his eyes burning up. "Such resolve! It fires me up!"

"Indeed!" Gai said. "Now, let's work on the basics. Let's start with your stance. Drop into your stance for me."

Kureiga

I felt my back hit the trunk of a tree after I was sent flying. I then brushed the side of my fist against the corner of my mouth before lowering it and looking at it. Sure enough, there was blood on it. I slowly stood up before looking over at Gai. I was right back where I met him earlier, with the training area illuminated by four torches, starting my training session with him.

Earlier, when I met the team for a mission, Naruto looked like he was put through hell and back. He told me about Lee. I didn't feel sorry for Lee. On the contrary, I gained a new respect for him. A lot of people would have quit under his circumstances. But he didn't let lack of proper chakra control, or any kind of chakra control, stop him one bit. Naruto was evidence of that. As he admitted, Lee wiped the floor with him twice, though he fared better the second time. Apparently, he had his stance fixed, and was shown the proper way to strike and what not. Still, he was roughed up, and I felt sorry for him. That was until I met Gai for training session.

As far as I was concerned, Naruto got off lucky.

Gai was teaching me a variant of Goken: The Art of Eight Limbs. Basically put, practitioner of this style treated their body as if it had eight limbs. Those eight limbs included the arms, the legs, the elbows, and knees. These eight "limbs" were used to leave the opponent broke. The difference between regular Goken and The art of Eight Limbs was that Goken was beautiful to look at. I remembered the few times I saw Gai in action. Despite the deadliness of Goken, it was mesmerizing to see him move.

On the other hand, there was nothing beautiful about The Art of Eight Limbs. It was a rather brutal looking style. There were no flips or acrobatic dodging, just pure, unadulterated, brutality, as I experienced firsthand.

Needless to say, I spent a good chunk of my training session getting manhandled by Gai. I quickly realized why so the elbows and knees were elevated to "limb" status when I felt Gai's knees and elbows against my face, ribs, and stomach. The only time I wasn't getting my behind handed to me was when Gai was teaching me the proper stance and showing me some of the strikes. And that was at the beginning of the session.

"That's enough for the night," Gai said. My body screamed relief. I felt pain all over my body from the many blows I taken. However, I shook my head fiercely.

"NO!" I yelled in protest. "I'm not done yet!" I dropped back into my stance. Or at least I tried to before my knees buckled, causing me to lose my balance and land on my butt. While I wanted to continue, my body just wouldn't let me. I then saw a hand in front of me. I looked at it before looking up at the person who it belonged to, who happened to be Gai. I took his hand, and he lifted me to my feet.

"While I'm glad the fires of your youth is burning strong, you should always know when enough is enough," he said. "This is not something you're going to master in one day. Remember that." I slowly nodded, admitting defeat on the issue. "Now take this." He held a scroll out to me. I took it and looked down at it.

"What's this?"

"It's a diet plan," he said with a smile. I immediately patted my stomach. "Not that kind of diet. It's to help you get the proper nutrition. Your training will be for nothing if your body isn't getting the proper nutrients to grow."

"I see…" I said as I opened up the scroll. As I scrolled through it, I saw that it contained a diet regimen, a list of suggested food items (which, to my dismay, included red tea), and many different recipes. It was a rather long scroll. I was about to ask if all of it was necessary. But then I realized who I was about to ask the question to. I never heard of him being in the hospital, despite going through training methods would leave a normal shinobi in the ER, if not in a coffin. "I guess I'm in this for the long haul." Gai have me a thumbs up with his right hand before giving me his signature "bling" smile. I would later find out that he was giving me his "nice guy" pose. I nodded at him before bowing as much as I could without setting off the pain receptors in my back. "Alright, Gai-sensei. I'll see you tomorrow night." I took a deep breath before jumping towards the trees.

I made my way towards city streets of Konoha, with the leaves passing by me in a blur. As I moved through the forest, I started to imagine myself when I finally mastered the Art of Eight Limbs. I started to see enemy ninjas look at my black eyes in fear and wonder what kind of beast lies under that mask of mine. I relished the thought as I clenched my fist. I was going to master this style.

Sasuke

I looked up at the night sky, looking back on the day. It was almost more of the same. We met a little later than usual before we carried out another pointless, so-called mission. This time, we were "privileged" enough to paint a house as I, and probably every other on the team I was assigned to, wonder how much rapport we must build before we actually do a real mission.

But a couple of things caught my interest that day. The first was the arrival of Naruto, who appeared more unkempt than he usually was. He had more tears in his uniform and a lot of dirty spots could be seen across the orange fabric of, especially about his forearms. I dismissed it at first. I really didn't care about the Dobe, let alone about what resulted in his appearance. But then I overheard a conversation he had with and Kureiga after the mission. The two of them were discussing some training that apparently resulted in Naruto's appearance. Not just any kind of training, but training with Konoha's number one taijutsu specialist.

It intrigued me a bit. Or, at least, a part of me was. I guess I wanted to see if Naruto could actually do something right.

I sighed as I pushed the thoughts of Naruto aside, thinking about my own goals. At that time, I knew I wasn't ready to attain my goal. And at the rate I was going, I knew I'd be dead before I was able to, which would inconvenient, consider that my death would end all hope of my clan ever being restored. I decided to be patient, for now. But I didn't know how much of these pseudo-missions I could take.

Sakura

"Alright, this is Scarecrow. I see the target. Is anyone in position to attack?"

"This is Steel Blossom. I'm ready to go."

"…This is Dark Phoenix. I have my eyes on the target."

"This is Orange Fox. I see the target as well, dattebayo."

"This is Thunderbird. Let's do this."

"Alright, move in!"

All four of us jumped out of the bushes, ready to strike. Naruto got to the target first, grabbing her by the legs. Sasuke, Kureiga, and I stopped next to him. I smothered a laugh as Naruto struggled with our target, which was a brown-furred cat with a red bow on its ear. The cat belonged to the wife of the Lord of the Fire Country.

"Bow on the ear," Kureiga noted. "We got her. Hey, Sakura, want to radio that in?" I nodded as I brought my hand to my earpiece.

"This is Steel Blossom," I said over the radio. "Target is acquired."

"This is Scarecrow. I'll rendezvous with you in a minute. Good job."

I dropped my hand from my earpiece as Naruto managed to subdue the cat. Sasuke sat down at on a fallen log, with his elbows on his lap and his hands intertwined in front of his face. Kureiga looked up at the sky before looking at me.

"How much longer?" he asked. I raised my eyebrows.

"How much longer until what?" I asked.

"How much longer until we stop doing manual labor and actually perform ninja duties?" I furrowed up my eyebrows.

"Must you always be this impatient?" I said. "Remember what Kakashi-sensei said?"

"I do." Kureiga leaned against a tree. "But this is getting ridiculous. How much rapport do we have to build until the Hokage think we're ready to take on ACTUAL ninja tasks? And you can't tell me you're not getting tired of these so-called missions." I tilted my head at him.

"Well, maybe we wouldn't have to do so many missions if you haven't trashed the restaurant a few days ago!" I replied. "We'd be doing C-Rank missions right now if it wasn't for your short temper." Kureiga scoffed.

"You lose your temper one time, and everyone thinks you have anger issues." He rolled his eyes, looking upward at the sky. "Look, what the chef did was wrong. As far as I'm concerned, he needed to be decked one." He shook his head. "I don't even know why we're even having this conversation."

"You gave us bad name!"

"All I did was stick up for a teammate!"

"That's enough, you two!" I looked up to see Kakashi crouched on a branch of a tree. I looked back at Kureiga, who glared right back at me. "Let's go. We need to return the cat back to its owner." Kureiga shrugged.

"The sooner the better."

Kakashi

As we stood in the Hokage's office, I couldn't help but notice the looks of annoyance on their faces. This was their fifteenth D-Rank mission they underwent. While they passed every single one of them, the missions were getting to them. It wasn't because the missions were particularly taxing. But I could tell they were getting tired of being, as Kureiga called it one time, "cheap labor". I couldn't really blame them for getting agitated. Back when I was a genin, I remembered myself getting agitated when I began doing missions with my team. And just like me, they were annoyed by the manual labor they were doing (though Naruto, of all people, didn't complain one bit about doing the missions involving gardening). I knew that I was going to have to get the Hokage to assign us a C-Rank mission.

"Oi, can I go?" I heard Naruto ask as I just completed the debriefing. I looked at him. "I start my job today." I raised my eyebrows briefly. I nodded nonetheless.

"Okay," I said. "You all did a great job today. You are dismissed." All four of them nodded as they made their way out of the office. I then turned and looked at the Hokage as he sat behind the lone desk that occupied the relatively large room. Behind was a large window, granting those who look through it the view of the entire village. The Sandaime looked over at me, a faint smile on his face.

"You look like you have something to tell me," he said in an observational tone. Under my mask, my lips curled in a slight smile.

"Always observant," I said. I then frowned. "They are not going to last any longer."

"Really?" the Sandaime said. "They seem to be doing well with their missions." I shook my head.

"That's not what I meant. They are getting agitated with performing these D-Rank missions." The Sandaime nodded.

"That is to be expected," he said. "No ninja fresh from the academy expect their missions to be making deliveries across town, or doing housework." He paused for a moment. "You did tell them the reason for D-Rank missions, I assume." I nodded.

"I did. And they agreed with the reasoning. However, we're dealing with a team of shinobi with high ambitions. Naruto wants your job, Sasuke wants to revive his clan, Kureiga wants to be the head of ANBU, and Sakura…" I paused, trying to think of what she wanted to be, besides Sasuke's wife. Nothing came up.

"I'm well aware of every one of their goals," the Hokage replied, standing up. He turned and walked over to the window before coming to a stop. He brought his hands behind his back, right hand in his left. "I met with all four of them before, and they have made their intentions clear." He sighed slightly. "Do you think they are ready for a C-Rank mission?" I shrugged my shoulders.

"I highly doubt they could be any more prepared." I saw his head move vertically, apparently from him nodding.

"Alright," he said. He then turned around and looked towards me. "In two weeks, I try to have something for them. Nothing too hard, but something that will placate their appetite."

Tazuna

"This is the third time this week."

I groaned before I lifted my head from the table. Today wasn't exactly my best day. Then again, it had been a long time before since I actually had a good day. What was so bad about my day? Well, I'll have to start from the beginning.

I'm from a country known as the Land of Waves. It's an island nation off the coast of the Land of Fire. The Land of Waves is one of the smaller nations of the world. We didn't have a hidden village, and we weren't blessed with a Daimyo like other villages. Heck, we weren't even among richest countries. But we were pretty well off. With a lot of villages coming to us whenever they needed supplies, we made a lot of money off of exportation. It was very easy for someone to make comfortable living in the Land of Waves. It was a relaxing place to be. Or, at least, it used to be, until Gato came along.

Gato was a head of a powerful and lucrative company. As such, he had a lot of influence and very deep pockets. He had set his eyes on our island, setting foot on it and offering to buy up the ports of the island for a hefty amount, stating, in a loquacious way, that it would help the economy of the island. A lot of us bit on it, believing what he said. It seemed like a good idea. After all, it wasn't every day that the head of a multimillion ryo company comes to us and requests to open up shop on our island. So we said yes, not even bothering to find out more about Gato, like his background and whatnot. This turned out to be a mistake.

He bought out all of the ports on the island and took over all of our shipping routes. Because of this, he was able make a monopoly on the island. He controlled the entire shipping operations of the island. When we tried to confront him about it, he merely sent out his army of hired thugs to take control of the island itself. For a few years, we were under oppression until I decided to do something about it. Specifically, I decided to build a bridge connecting the island to the Fire Country. By doing that, it would greatly reduce our need on our ports by getting our supplies by land.

Thing is, news travels fast. It always has, and it always will. And when you inhabit a relatively small nation, it travels even faster. Ever since my crew of workers and starting building the bridge, Gato has sent many men after us. At first, he just targeted my crew. This ranged from the vandalism of their homes to outright murder. However, that did little to deter my crew, as only a few of my men quit on the job, since my men longed for the way things were before. Realizing this, he decided to go another route: he went after me instead. Since I was the only bridge builder and designer in the group, it would effectively. This lead to many attempts on my life and well being, which, most recently, a glancing blow to my head via club.

"I just hope this bridge gets done soon." That was my daughter, Tsunami, who said that. I shared a home with her, mostly to help support the family ever since she lost her second husband. I saw her black hair part slightly as she ran her hands through it before grabbed a steaming kettle off of the stove. I sighed as she came over.

"At this rate, I'd be celebrating my seventieth birthday before I'm done with that bridge," I said irritably. That'll be eleven years from now." I sighed as Tsunami poured some tea into a cup that was in front of me. "This whole situation is stressing me out." Tsunami's black eyes looked over at me for a moment.

"Sometimes I wished you didn't push yourself so hard," she said. I merely shrugged.

"What do you expect me to do? It's the only chance we got to break Gato's hold on this town. But with all these attacks… it's really slowing down our progress." I sighed once more before looking at Tsunami once again. "I have to do something."

"Do what?" she asked. I grabbed the cup in front of me before taking a sip from it. I then sighed.

"I'm going to Konoha."

"Konoha?"

"Yes. I'm going to try and see if I can seek help from the Hokage himself. Maybe offer me protection while the bridge is built, like ninja or -"

"Ninja?" she said. "Isn't that expensive? We don't have much money…"

"I know," I said. "But it must be done." I looked over at her. "I'll be leaving sometime tomorrow, and should be back later that day. You just hold down the forth until I come back."


	4. Land of Waves Arc: Reality Check

Tenten

I stood in front of the door, waving at Naruto. He waved back before turning away and making his way down the street, heading home after putting in some work at my parents' shop. I eyed him for a little longer before I walked back inside of the shop. I looked and left right, looking at the many weapons we had displayed on the wall for customers to see. I then walked back to the front desk and sat behind it as I waited for Kureiga to show up, like he usually does. I had certain things to talk to him about.

I didn't have to wait that long. Chimes that hung on the door sounded as Kureiga entered the shop.

"Nee-chan," he said. He had a slight scowl on his face. I chuckled slightly. He wasn't in his best mood.

"Otouto, how's it going?" I asked as he approached the front desk. He closed the distance before taking a seat on top of the desk.

"I think these missions are getting out of hand," he said. I chuckled. "I'm serious. We had to retrieve a cat for the Fire Daimyo's wife. I mean… really? Is that what I signed up for? Pet retrieval?" I laughed out loud.

"I told you your first few weeks were going to suck," I reminded.

"You could have been more specific, you know?"

"True," I said. "But I didn't want to discourage you." He rolled his eyes. He then looked at me with a curious look.

"So, how was Naruto's first day on the job?" he asked. I looked down at the desk.

"I actually want to talk to you about that." Kureiga immediately jumped up from the desk, backing away.

"Oh, don't tell me he screwed up!" I stood up and walked over to him before I grabbed him by the shoulders.

"Relax," I said. "He actually did a good job." I then walked over to the desk and sat down on top of it. I then lightly rapped the space next to me. Kureiga reluctantly walked over and sat next to me. "There are just some things I need to tell you about." He raised an eyebrow.

"What things?" he asked.

"You see, I gave him a huge task today. Basically, I told him to rearrange the back room. The _whole_ backroom. So, I left him there so I could watch the front. But a few minutes later, I see him walk out of the backroom. I asked why he left, and he told me there wasn't much room left. I was confused when he said that, so I went to the backroom to see what he meant, and I saw the whole room flooded with clones. And not the basic clones you learn at the academy, but Shadow Clones!" Kureiga tilted his head.

"I keep on hearing about Shadow Clones lately," he said, eyebrows raised. "What's the big deal about them?"

"You don't know about Shadow Clones?" I was surprised. It was one of the many jutsus that is read about at the academy. "Look, Shadow Clones is Konoha's exclusive clone technique. It's not like the intangible clones that we made back at the academy. These clones are actually copies of the user. They can use all the jutsu that the user knows, and when they are dispersed, all of the knowledge they gain goes back to the user. Not only that, but each clone can act independently."

"That's impressive," Kureiga said. "Looks like I should try to learn that, then."

"Good luck with that," I said. "Naruto shouldn't even be able to use that technique." He raised an eyebrow.

"Why not?"

"Well… Look, Naruto's a genin. His chakra network and chakra reserves should not be developed enough at this point to allow him to even do the basic form of the technique. It's an advanced technique that is only taught to jonin. And the advanced form of it, the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique has been banned from being taught because it can leave a user to the point of death. But Naruto was using the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique as if he was just forming seals. He created thirty clones, and whenever one dispersed, he just created another one. Do you know what this means?"

"…This mean he already has Jonin level reserves…" he whispered. I shook my head.

"More than that!" I said. "I don't think there's a person in this village that's on his level."

"Interesting…" Kureiga said. We stayed silent for a few minutes as we both pondered the situation. I then sighed.

"I must apologize to Naruto," I said. Kureiga turned and looked at me, eyebrows raised.

"Why?" he asked.

"He's not that bad of a guy. He's a hard worker and extremely helpful. He's a very interesting kid. You know he wants to become Hokage." Kureiga nodded. "You don't hear that much from young ninja like us, you know?"

"I know," he said before he stood up. "Don't apologize to him." I raised my eyebrow.

"Why not?" I asked. "Would it not be the right thing to do?"

"Sometimes, the right thing to do is not the right thing to do. With an exception of a relative few, the whole village hates him for some stupid reason that I don't even know. And that's not an exaggeration. A chef actually tampered with his food when my team ate at this restaurant." My eyes widened slightly. "It would probably be best if he believes that you never held him in such negative regard, you know?" I nodded slowly. Kureiga stood up and brought his arms out as he stretched. "I got to go. I have to watch the shop for a few hours before I go on another training session from Hell."

"Training session from Hell?" I repeated. Kureiga nodded.

"Yeah. Naruto and I are getting trained in taijutsu by your sensei. Well, best get going. Ja ne!" I nodded as Kureiga turned and headed out of the shop.

"I hope Sensei doesn't kill him," I said with a sigh. "I won't forgive him if he does."

Kureiga

Ah, the Kazama Pastry Shop. It was my family's business started by my dad. The building the shop resided in was rather large. It was two stories, with the second floor serving as my family's residence. The first floor was where the dough meets the rolling pin. The second floor is divided into two areas. The first area, the part the customer's see when they enter, consists of a white cashier's desk in the center of it the room. On each side of the desk are glass display cases, where we put our run of the mill pastries and sweets, like cream puffs and cookies. In the back was the kitchen area, where my mom and dad work to bake the goods that we sold, from the regular in store stuff to custom orders. It was complete with an oven and a storage area for all of the needed ingredients. More often than not, this is where my parents would be, trying to fill an order that was placed.

However, it was a slow day, as I was currently watching the shop as my parents decided to take the afternoon off. Before they left, my dad told me that I could close the shop as soon as the order that was placed a few days ago was picked up. As such, right on the counter was a box of red bean mochi, waiting to get picked up. As I waited, I perused the scroll that Gai handed to me, trying to think of what I should cook for dinner. As I did so, I mentally pieced together my schedule. I wake up at seven o'clock, eat a hearty breakfast before I go through the workouts detailed by Gai-sensei's scroll along with my usual morning training for about four and a half hours straight. Then I eat lunch before I meet my team at the Hokage's office at noon to take on a mission, take on another mission if there's any time left, take my pay and deposit it on my home, use the three to five hours of free to either lounge around, hang out in the town, train lightly, or putting in some work at the shop. After that, I eat dinner before I meet Gai-sensei for another hellacious session of training. I then go to sleep at midnight before I wake up and repeat the process again the next day.

I sighed as I looked up at the ceiling in thought. I started to wonder about the other teams. Were they still doing D-Ranks missions like my team? Or did they already move on to doing actual missions? What more does my team have to do for us to actually start doing actual missions? In my head, I kept on asking myself these questions. As you could tell, I was growing tired of these missions. Actually, I was already tired of them. But what was really irritating was that I couldn't do a thing about it. I had to either pay our dues until they feel we can get the job done or quit and never reach my goal. And since the latter was never an option to me, there were only two things I can do about my situation: nothing, and like it.

The chimes sounded as the door to the shop opened. I looked forward before closing my eyes and plastering a cheerful smile on my face. "Welcome to Kazama Pastry Shop," I said with a matching tone. "How may I help you this afternoon?"

"K-Kureiga-kun?" I heard a quiet voice say. I opened my eyes, looking at the source of the voice.

"Hinata?" I said.

Hinata Hyuga was part of the same graduating class I was in. She was a terribly shy and timid person who I never heard speak without a stutter. But the black-haired, white eyed girl was a nice person. She was the only girl in the class who didn't fawn over Sasuke, and she was always concerned about others, sometimes to a fault. I remembered quite a few times when she offered me ointment for all my scrapes, even though I always politely declined.

I gave her another smile, this one genuine. "Hey, what brings you here?"

"H-hello, Kureiga-kun. I'm here to p-pick up the order."

"So you're here for the red bean mochi," I said as I stood up. I picked up the box and handed it to her. "Here you go."

"Arigato, Kureiga-kun," she said with a small smile on her face. She then frowned slightly. "Um… I-is Naruto okay?"

I titled my head. "What do you mean if he's okay?" I said. "Did something happen to him?"

"W-well…. I saw him earlier at noon… and his clothes were ripped, and he was limping a bit. I hope he is not struggling with the missions." I couldn't help scoff at that statement.

"I don't think academy student could struggle with these so-called missions," I retorted. I then smiled slightly. "And don't worry about Naruto. He and I have been going through taijutsu training since a couple of days ago, and Gai sensei is a tough teacher." I chuckled slightly. "He's doing perfectly fine."

"That's good," she said. "I'm glad he is doing well. He… He tries very hard, you know?"

"That he does," I said. I then looked at her. "You know, you're the first person from my class I've seen acknowledge the boy. I'm glad for that." I sighed. "He deserves more people like you." I couldn't help but notice the blush that spread across her face. A few gears started to turn in my head, but I quickly threw a wrench into the machine.

I didn't want to jump to conclusions.

Sakura

We were back in the mission room. We just completed another mission. We had to retrieve the cat. Again. The four of us stood behind Kakashi as he gave a summary of the mission to the Hokage. In front of him was the Hokage himself, who was flanked Iruka-sensei and Hayate Gekko. The cat itself struggled to run away from the Fire Daimyo's wife. I don't know if it was because of the smothering hug it was placed or because it was the target of the killer intent radiating off of Sasuke, Naruto, and Kureiga. I thought about admonishing them, but I couldn't really blame them. It was the third time we had to retrieve that cat, making me wonder what is being done to the poor animal for it to constantly run away. I hoped it was the last time we had to retrieve the cat, because I had a feeling that the next time it happened, my teammates would act on their intent.

"Good work, all of you," Sarutobi-sama said. "I must say, I'm rather impressed. You, along with the rest of the rookie class have yet to fail a mission. It's been a long time since that last happened. You should be proud of yourselves."

"Thank you, Hokage-sama," I said, smile on my face. However, Sasuke kept his neutral expression, Kureiga scoffed, and Naruto crossed his arms, scowling.

"Your teammates don't look so pleased," he noted before taking a puff on his pipe. Naruto looked over at the Hokage.

"When are we going to start performing real missions?" he asked. The room went silent for a moment. I then looked over at Kureiga. He looked over at me with a scowl. He then sighed as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. He searched through the leather piece before he pulled out a wad of ryo and handed it over to me. I smiled as I grabbed the bills and counted them before I pocketed them.

"What do you mean, Naruto?" the Hokage asked.

"We are ninja, right? When can we do actual ninja missions? All we've been doing was gardening, cleaning, and retrieving animals for weeks, dattebayo!"

"Naruto!" Iruka said, standing up from his seat. "There's a reason why we have genin do these missions."

"We already know the reason," Kureiga said, speaking for the first time since we entered the office. "And we all agree that it's a very good reason. Great even. But we've been doing these missions for so long that we actually managed to get hired out by the same villager twice on quite a few occasions. If we haven't built enough rapport already… Well, dang, what more we have to do? Wipe their ass for them?"

I immediately pounded my fist on the top of Kureiga's head, causing him to fall to one knee as he cradled his head.

"Watch your language!" I said angrily. I then turned towards the Hokage and Iruka. "Please forgive Kureiga and Naruto. They have been restless these last few days. We really don't mind these missions, right Sasuke?" I turned towards Sasuke, smile on my face.

"…Actually, I agree with them," he said. I raised my eyebrows as the room went silent. I turned back towards the Hokage, who looked at us with a neutral expression while Iruka looked over at Sasuke with a raised eyebrow. The Hokage then grabbed one of the scrolls that were on the table in front of him before he opened it.

"Well… I was going to wait until two weeks later… but since you all seem so eager, I'm going to assign you your first C-Ranked mission." All four of us looked up at the Hokage with looks of shock.

"You mean it?" Kureiga asked with disbelief present in his voice.

"No dog walking?"Naruto added.

"No lawn work?

"No house painting, dattebayo?"

"No cat retrieval?!" The both said that part at the same time.

The Hokage nodded. In an instant, Kureiga and Naruto was behind the desk, hugging the Hokage tightly and thanking him over and over again as Iruka and Hayate tried to pry them off, finally succeeding. The two of them then returned to their previous spots. The Hokage merely chuckled through the whole ordeal.

"You're welcome. But I'm not doing this as a favor. I'm doing this because you all have shown that you are ready to take on a mission of a higher level, despite some… setbacks." The Hokage looked at Kureiga, who shifted his footing uncomfortably. Kakashi-sensei laid a hand on his shoulder, causing Kureiga to look up. From what I can tell, Kakashi gave him a smile.

"Kakashi," I heard Iruka say. "Are you sure your team is ready for such a mission?"

Kakashi nodded. "They are as they will ever be."

"Alright," the Hokage said. "Here are the details of this mission. A bridge builder from the Land of Waves request an escort him home. Your mission is to make sure he gets there in one piece, and look after him until he completes the bridge."

"Interesting," I said. "Who's the client?" As I asked this, the door behind me opened.

"He's coming in right now."

The five of us turned around and looked at the man who strolled in. He was a little shorter than Kureiga, and had somewhat short grey hair. He wore glasses and had a grey goatee. He wore a brown, sleeveless shirt with white pants. In his left hand was beer bottle.

"What's this?" he said. "They are all a bunch of brats! And the shortest one of all with the stupid face, are you even a ninja?"

Naruto blinked a few times before looking at the rest of us, looking from Kakashi-sensei, to Kureiga, then Sasuke, and finally myself. He then turned his head slowly at the client, giving off a spike of killing intent.

"Baka, I will kill you!" he yelled as Kakashi-sensei grabbed him by the back of the collar.

"What's the point of killing the person we're supposed to protect?" Kakashi admonished.

"This guy has some stones to actually talk down to us like that," Kureiga said. "We could waste him right now if we wanted."

"Kureiga!" I yelled. He shrugged.

"I'm just saying."

"I'm Tazuna, superb bridge builder. I expect to be provided with topnotch protection until I return to my country and complete the bridge."

"You have my word," Kakashi said. "You will not even be touched." He then turned towards the four of us. "We'll leave in two hours. Use the time to prepare all of our equipment and get your affairs in order. After that, meet me at the front gate. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Sensei," we all said at the same time.

"Good. You are all dismissed. Tazuna-san, you're sticking with me."

Naruto

Kureiga and I headed over to the weapons shop that was headed up by Tenten's father. As we walked, I couldn't keep myself from shaking from excitement.

"Our first real mission!" I yelled out. "We're going on our first real mission, dattebayo!"

"You're really excited about this, huh?" Kureiga said.

"Of course I am," I said. "It's going to be my first time travelling to another village. Have you ever travelled outside of Konoha?" Kureiga shook his head no.

"I almost did, when my dad had to travel to the Land of Rice," he said as we approached the shop. "Though, from what I can tell, it was good that I didn't go. Apparently, he went at the worst possible time." Kureiga shrugged as I opened the door and stepped through with him following me. At the front desk was Tenten with her head on top of the desk.

"Ohayo, Tenten-chan!" I greeted as we approached her. She lifted her head slowly and looked at us, groaning.

"Nee-chan?" Kureiga said. "What's wrong?" She frowned.

"Well, Lee was extra fired up today," she started to explain. She then looked at me. "And that was because _someone_ had to mention something about getting weights to help your training. Lee was so inspired by the fact that you asked that, he suggested that the whole team start using weights. Want to guess what happened?" I nervously scratched the back of my head while Kureiga struggled to hold in his laughter. "That's not funny! I have one more training session with him today!"

"Good!" Kureiga said. "Then you can tell him that Naruto and I are going to be gone for a few days. We're going on our first C-Ranked mission today." Tenten gave us a smile.

"Really?" Tenten asked. We both nodded. "That's awesome! Looks like you can't complain anymore, huh Kureiga? So, what can I do you for?"

"We need some kunai and shuriken, dattebayo," I said.

"And I need the usual order of explosive tags," Kureiga added. Tenten nodded.

"Sure thing. Does twenty of each sound reasonable?" We both nodded. "Good. I have something for the two of you." She stood up slowly. "Follow me." She walked into the back room, with the two of us going in after her. In the backroom were many boxes on many shelves. She looked at each shelf, seemingly looking for a certain item. She then stopped in front of one of the shelves, which contained one box. She pulled the box off of the shelf and laid it on the ground. She then opened and pulled out two large shuriken.

"Is that what I think it is?" Kureiga said, his mouth dropping.

"Why yes," Tenten said with a smile. "Yes it is."

"What is it?" I said, my eyes not moving away from the black, bladed weapon.

"These, are Fuma Shuriken, invented by the very dangerous Fuma clan. It's a lot more dangerous than the average shuriken, with it being a lot larger, a lot sharper, and more menacing. Also…" She then spun both in her hands, and the two shuriken folded up, making it look like the shuriken it's made out of one blade. "…it's collapsible, making it portable." She then brought the shuriken out towards us. "I want you two to have them."

My eyes widened when she said. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kureiga look at me from the corner of my eye.

"A-are… Are you serious?" I said in disbelief.

"Yeah, Naruto," Tenten said. "You've been great around the shop, and I figured you deserved something for your hard work." Kureiga and I took our weapons.

"Thanks, Nee-chan," Kureiga said. "We really appreciate it." I nodded in agreement. We then moved throughout the backroom, picking up what we needed before we moved to the front store to get ringed up. We both pulled out my wallet, with Kureiga scoffing at it.

"Geez, what are you doing carrying around a frog wallet?" he said.

"Toad, dattebayo!" I corrected.

"Okay," Tenten said. "You two are good to go. Now, when you guys come back, you better tell me that you succeeded in your mission. I won't forgive you if you don't."

"Don't worry, Nee-chan," Kureiga said. "We got this. Come on Naruto. We still have time for a quick lunch before we head over there." I nodded as I turned to walk with. Then I turned around and walked over to Tenten.

"One more thing," I said. I then wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into a hug. "Domo arigato, Tenten-chan." After a few seconds, I felt a hand rub my back.

"Anytime, Naruto-kun."

Sasuke

"Please, hold your applause!" I heard Kureiga say as he and Naruto approached.

"It's about time," I heard Tazuna say. "What kind of ninja leaves an elder waiting?"

"I can't wait until we get you home, dattebayo!" Naruto said as he and Kureiga joined the three of us.

"That's enough," Kakashi said. "We're going to head trek over to one of the ports in the Fire Country. By the time we reach the port, a ferryman from the Land of Waves will be there to take us over to his native country. While on this mission, you will do what I say. It's going to be a simple escort mission. However, be on your guard. We still have to look out for bandits, thieves, and the like. Is that understood?" While everyone said "Yes sir", I merely nodded. I just wanted to get this mission started. "Good. Let's begin." We began our journey, taking the road that lead to Konoha. As we travelled the path, we spent our time going through one of the many forests of the Land of Fire.

I remembered when I was younger, when I first travelled the Land of Fire with my father. I was confused by it. I expected to see land that was forever on fire. But what I saw was land of green forests, filled with the usual woodland creatures, like wolves and squirrels. It took me a while before my father told me the real reason: along with the warm weather, most people in the land who can control chakra are usually fire users, like my clan.

As we walked along the path, I kept on getting this weird feeling that it was too quiet. I shrugged it off as I walked in the front of the group. I took a glance behind me to see Sakura looking smiling at me, the Big Mouth speaking with the Dobe, and Tazuna taking up the rear with Kakashi. Everything was fine. I turned forward again, wondering how long it would take for us to reach the ports.

"NOW!" I heard a voice yelled. I turned around, along with the rest of the group, to see two figures streak around the sky. I blinked, and in that instant, Kakashi was instantly wrapped in a chain that was made of shuriken.

"What's going on?" Naruto yelled out.

On each side of him were two ninjas. Both of them had white short-sleeved shirts with random shapes on them of varying shades of grey and black with matching pants that were stuffed into black sandals. They both also had some kind of breathing mask over the lower half of their faces, similar to what I would see a diver use to breathe underwater. The one on Kakashi's right had long, spiky hair, had two metal hornlike projections on the sides of the metal piece of his hitai-ite, and wore a black vest over his shirt. The other shinobi had somewhat long hair as well, with a few bangs hanging over his forehead, and had a tattered black cloak with a hood on the back of it. Both of them had a black gauntlet on their hand (one of them had it on their left hand, while the other one had it on their right hand), each with clawed fingers. As I looked at closer, the chain of shuriken seemed to be running between the two gauntlets.

"One down," one of them said as both of them put the chain in opposite directions. The shuriken sliced clean through Kakashi, leaving his body to fall to the ground in bloody pieces.

"Holy shit," Kureiga exclaimed as he saw the sight.

"Three more to go," I heard one of them. Sakura instantly moved in front of Tazuna as Kureiga and Naruto looked up at the two enemy ninja.

"You're going to pay for that!" I heard Kureiga yell as I saw him run forward with his arms moving, which, as I was about to find out, was a result of him forming seasl. He then skidded to a stop. "Lightning Release: Thunderbolt!" He brought his right arm out front, and streak of lightning shot out from it and towards two of them. At first, they looked as if they were caught in the attack as a blue flash encompassed the area for a brief moment. Once the flashed cleared, however, two logs laid on the grounded, charred black by Kureiga's attack.

"Two down!"

The two nin appeared above and behind Naruto. Naruto looked up and saw the two nin, but froze in fear. As they landed, one of the enemy shinobi took a swipe at Naruto, who put his hands up in defense, resulting his left hand being slashed open. I growled as pulled out a kunai as I leapt into the air. I then threw the kunai and the chain of shuriken. The kunai sailed through the air and pierced through one of the shuriken that held the chain together before flying straight into a tree, taking the two of them with it. As I came down to the ground, the two of them release their chain, releasing them. They then turned towards Tazuna, who was behind Sakura. They turn and ran towards his, clawed gauntlets readied for a strike. I immediately ran towards Sakura myself and skidded to a stop in front of her as I turned to face the two ninjas.

Before they could touch me, however, a tall figure appeared in front of me, arms out. In an instant, the necks of the two enemy shinobi were wrapped tightly in the arms of the figure. The figure turned towards me, revealing a lone eye.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura said behind. He nodded, smiling under his mask.

"Sorry for my tardiness," he said. He then looked over at Naruto. "Sorry Naruto. I got you injured. I didn't think you'd freeze up like that. Anyway, nice job Sasuke and Kureiga. You too, Sakura."

I looked over at the spot where his body parts laid, only to see that it was nothing but cut logs.

_So he used substitution._ I looked over at Naruto, who was crouched down to one knee. He looked down at the ground, frustration evident on his face. I smiled slightly. I had a feeling he was angry about not being able to do anything. I decided to test that theory.

"Hey!" I called out. Naruto looked at me, eyebrows raised. "Are you okay… Scaredy Cat?" He looked up at me, eyes furrowed up and teeth bared. He opened his mouth, ready to retort.

"That's enough Naruto," Kakashi interrupted. "Their claws are soaked with poison. Don't move much until we can open up the wound, unless you want it to spread." I smiled in satisfaction, knowing that I got the last word.

Sakura

Kakashi was standing over the two enemy ninja, who were tied up to the trunk of a tree and forcefully relieved of their gauntlets.

"These two are the Demon Brothers," Kakashi said while keeping his eyes on the two of them. "They are rogue Chunin from Kirigakure. A pretty dangerous pair. I would have been done for if I hadn't known we were being tailed."

"How did you know we were tailing you?" one of them asked, his voice echoing slightly.

"It hadn't rain for days. As a matter of fact, it rarely rains this time of year. This isn't Kiri. A puddle in a middle of a forest in Fire Country will not go unnoticed."

"If you knew that, why did you let them attack in the first place?!" Tazuna demanded.

"Because I needed to know a few things," Kakashi replied nonchalantly. He then looked at Tazuna. "Things that we need to talk about when we reach the port." He then turned away and walked over to Naruto, who was keeping uncharacteristically still. Kakashi came to a stop on front of Naruto before he crouched down. "Let me see your hand." Naruto reluctantly put his hand out forward. Kakashi took his hand gently and looked at it before sighing. "The poison is still in one spot. Unfortunately, the hospital nearby is back in Konoha. So you have two choices. Either we drain the blood of this wound here, or we send you back home."

Naruto stayed silent for a few moments. I narrowed my eyes before I was about to speak. However, he did something I didn't expect him to (though in hindsight, I really should not have been surprised).

"Never again…" he whispered as he reached behind his back with his good hand. He then brought it back around, kunai in hand. "Never again, dattebayo!" He twirled the kunai in his hand before he gripped the handle, blade pointing opposite of his thumb, and drive into the poisoned wound. "I won't be a burden for this team again. I'll make sure of it. I won't stop until I reach my goal, dattebayo!" During that whole time, the blood drained from the wound like water from a faucet.

"I'm glad for your resolve, Short Stack," I heard Kureiga say. "I really am. But I think you cut yourself too deep."

Naruto looked down at his hand before he frowned, followed by him thrashing about, causing Kakashi to grip his wrist and force him still. As he examined the wound, I couldn't help but notice the look of slight surprise on his face. I shook my head, muttering 'Baka' under my breath. I then turned towards Kureiga.

"Kureiga," Kureiga said. He turned towards me, and I gave him a slight smile. "I must say, you were awesome back there. Of course, you weren't as awesome as Sasuke…" He closed his eyes for a moment. I expected him to say some kind of scathing remark. But instead, he looked up at me and gave me a smile of his own.

"Thanks," he finally said, albeit in a somewhat defeated tone. "I really appreciate that."

"Okay," I heard Kakashi say. "Let's go!"

Kakashi

We eventually reached our destination, with a long boat and ferryman waiting for us. After a quick break, we seaborne as the boat made its way from the Land of Fire to the Land of Waves. I thought about a couple of things. The first thing I thought about was my team's performance. Out of the whole group, Naruto was the only one who acted somewhat as expected. While I didn't expect him to freeze up like he did, it was hard to fault him for being scared since he never faced an enemy ninja before, let alone two. I didn't expect Sakura to keep the client behind her, nor did I expect Sasuke and Kureiga to act in the manner they did, with the former being so quick to react to the attempted attack on Naruto and the latter being quick to engage the enemy ninja.

Speaking of enemy ninja, it made me wonder for a bit.

"Tazuna, we have some stuff to walk about," I said. Tazuna was in the back of the boat with me, sitting front of the ferryman who stood at the end of the boat, calmly paddling forward. Naruto, who sat at the head of the boat, turned and looked in my direction along with Sakura, who sat across from Sasuke in the middle of the boat. Kureiga, who sat next to Sakura, merely lifted his head while Sasuke merely sat in his signature sitting position. "I have a feeling this mission has been under-ranked."

"Under-ranked?" Kureiga said in confusion, finally turning his whole face towards me.

"What do you mean, dattebayo?" Naruto said, crawling towards us. Sakura looked between the two of them.

"How can you two not know anything about the Mission Ranking System?" she said. "It's one of the first things we learned our second year in the academy." Kureiga rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Since you seem to know so much, how 'bout you be a good teammate and actually _tell _us, huh?" Kureiga said irritably. Sakura rolled her eyes as she sighed.

"There are five levels of missions. From highest to lowest, they at S, A, B, C, and D. D ranked missions are the least difficult because they involve no combat. On C ranked missions, combat with bandits and thieves are to be prepared for, but not exactly expected. However, once we start hitting B ranked missions, that's when we start facing ninja, with the S rank applied to missions that may involve combat with the most dangerous of ninjas."

Naruto narrowed his eyes as he digested the information. He then looked up, scowling. "Wait! If we're not supposed to be fighting ninja on a C ranked mission…"

"…then why are we being attacked by ninja on this mission?"

We all turned to look at Tazuna, who remained silent for a moment. He then sighed.

"…Do you know about a certain Gato?" he asked. I nodded slowly.

"As a matter fact I do," I said. "He's the head of the most powerful shipping country in the world. I've heard that he's been known to resort to shady tactics in getting what he wants."

"That is an understatement. Just recently he took over all of the ports in the Land of Waves. By doing so, he took control of our routes, as well as the shipping rates. He also hired out a bunch of bandits to enforce his will over the nation. He basically took over the country and oppressed it. So I decided to start building a bridge from the Land of Waves to the Land of Fire. It would lessen or dependence on our docks. However, Gato knew that as well. So now he hired some people to come and kill me."

"Why didn't you tell us in the first place?" Kureiga said rather angrily.

"It's not like I had a choice. A B ranked mission is expensive, you know?"

"Not as expensive as our funeral arrangements!"

"Simmer down, Kureiga," I said calmly. "I must say, this does change everything. This team is very inexperienced, and I cannot justify risking their lives for a mission that is above their pay grade. As such, as soon as we reach the Land of Waves, you'll no longer be under our protection."

"Sure, that's fair," Tazuna said. "But if you're going to do that, can you please let my family know that I might die soon? Especially my eight year old grandson, who has no other father figure in his life since his father died when he was very young. It would only be fair."

I looked at him, trying to see if he was bluffing or not. After studying his face, I couldn't find anything that indicated that he was. I sighed, rubbing the bridge of my nose.

"We're going through with the mission aren't we?" Kureiga said. I looked over at him before nodding slowly. He sighed. "I must admit, he played the guilt card very well." As we moved through the sea, the area started to become foggy. The fog then became so thick that all of us almost appeared as if we were in a black and white movie.

"I chose this route for a reason," the ferryman explained as he slowly moved his paddle through the water. "The fog here should conceal us as we move towards our destination. I suggest that we keep silent for now. The less noise we make, the harder it would be for us to be spotted." I nodded slowly, agreeing with his reasoning. Naruto crawled back to his earlier spot at the head of the boat and Kureiga rested his elbows on his lap as he looked off into the distance. They stayed silent for the remainder of the trip. The only thing that broke the almost complete silence was the sound of the paddle parting the water as it propelled us.

Kureiga

It was agitating to me, staying quiet. It wasn't so much that I hated being quiet in general, contrary to popular belief. It's just that the silence was very unnerving with the stakes being known.

I couldn't help but think about the situation we were in. To tell the truth, I was scared and pissed off at the same time. Just the thought of our situation was enough to churn my stomach. I didn't really expect that much combat along the way, and the combat I did expect was engagement with thieves, bandits, and the like. Even though I never fought anyone under that category, I was more than confident I could beat them down with little to no effort. But there was a huge difference between thieves and bandits and shinobi. Especially shinobi who outranked you. It was not even a question. Honestly, who was going to win in a fight? Chunin who probably could dissect every single last trick you learned in the academy and beat you down with their own technique, or a bunch of Genin whose career highlight was capturing a cat?

I clenched my fist as I closed my eyes. I just couldn't help but think about how unfair the situation was. All I asked for was a higher ranked mission, not to protect someone from ninja who could kill me with as much as effort it would take for Naruto to clear thirteen bowls of ramen in one sitting.

I opened my eyes to see canteen below my face. I looked to see Sakura, that same canteen in her hand. To her right was Naruto, who seemed to have crawled from his position at the head of the boat. I took the canteen before taking a hearty gulp from it. I gave Sakura a thankful nod before passing the canteen off to Sasuke.


	5. Land of Waves Arc: Demon of The Mist

Naruto

"Looks like we're here," Kureiga whispered as he looked over his shoulder. I looked towards my left to see something in the fog.

"Is that the bridge," I asked. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tazuna nod. The bridge looked simple enough. It looked to be made out of stone, and it was supported by multiple pairs of round columns. "That's awesome, dattebayo."

"Thanks," Tazuna said. "But it will be a lot more awesome once it's finished, provided you can keep me alive."

"No worries," Kakashi said. "You're in good hands." I turned towards Tazuna and nodded fiercely in agreement. I meant what I said earlier. I wanted to make sure I wasn't burden, and this mission was a chance to show that I could hold my own.

The boat finally came to a stop in front of a small beach that to a path through a forest.

"I guess this is our stop, huh?" Kureiga said to the ferryman. The ferryman nodded.

"This is as far I go," he said. "I'll leave everything else in your hands." The whole team nodded as the six of us, including Tazuna, jumped off the both. I landed in the shallow water, splashing as I did so. I stood there for a few moments, enjoying the feeling of the water running between my toes before I walked onto the beach and followed everyone onto the pathway.

"Kakashi-sensei?" I said when I caught up to him. Kakashi turned his head towards me. "Can you tell me about the Land of Waves?"

"How do I say this?" he said for a moment. "This whole island is the Land of Waves. It's rather small, compared to other countries, as you can obviously guess. It's a tropical place, and it rarely snows here, even in the winter." He looked up at the sky in thought. "I guess, weather-wise, it's not that much different from the Land of Fire." He then looked back at me. "Why so curious?"

"It's my first time being outside the walls of Konoha, dattebayo." I said. "I want to know as much as possible about the places I visit." Kakashi smiled as he placed his hand on my head and ruffled my hair.

"You've really grown up in a very interesting way," he said. I looked up at him and smiled. I then blinked.

"Ah, Kakashi-sensei? About the training you set up with Gai-sensei…"

"How has that been going, by the way?" he asked.

"It's going well. I just… wanted to say thank you, dattebayo." Kakashi chuckled.

"No problem."

We walked along the path, with all of us staying quiet. It was actually kind of unnerving. I wasn't used to staying quiet for so long. I looked over at Sakura, who had all of her attention on Sasuke. I frowned at the sight. I really didn't get it. Why did she like him over me? He didn't pay her any attention and he was a jerk to everyone. It just didn't make sense to me.

I taken out of my thoughts by a sudden feeling felt in my stomach. I came to a stop before looking around.

"Short Stack, what's going on?" Kureiga said. The rest of the group came to a stop, looking back at me.

"Something's wrong," I whispered as I reached behind my back and dipped my hand in one of my pouches that was on my belt. "I think we're being followed, dattebayo."

"Again?" Kureiga said as Sasuke pulled out a kunai from his holster. I heard a rustle in the bushes to my right. I quickly pulled out a kunai and threw it into the bushes. The rest of my team convened on the area, weapons readied.

"Come on out, wussy," Kureiga taunted as he slashed at the bush. The bush rustled again before a white rabbit jumped out of it and ran up the path. Kureiga looked at it intently. I was about to ask him what was wrong before I felt a sudden hit pain on the top of my head. I immediately grabbed my head before I looked in front of me to see Sakura glare at me.

"Baka!" she said bitterly. "You made us get all riled up for nothing!"

"STOP ACTING LIKE A MORON!!!" Tazuna added.

"But Sakura-chan, someone is really following us, dattebayo!" I pleaded, totally ignoring Tazuna. However, Sakura raised her fist again.

"Kakashi –sensei," Kureiga said suddenly. We all looked at Kureiga, who was still staring up the path. "Didn't you say that the Land of Waves is a tropical island whose weather is not that much different from the Land of Fire?"

"That is true," Kakashi replied. "I take it you noticed something about the rabbit, too?" Kureiga nodded.

"What's a white rabbit doing in a tropical place like this?"

That's when we saw it. A huge blade flew out of nowhere, imbedding itself into a tree, high up on the trunk. Then instantly, a figure showed up, standing on top of the blade. He wore light blue pants with black pinstripes running up and down them. He seemed to have some kind of belt going diagonally across his back (Kureiga would later tell me that was the sheath for the ridiculously large sword that he was standing on). His sandals were almost knee high, having a black and white cow pattern to it, along with the matching sleeves that covered his forearms. He turned his head towards us, and I saw that he had black hair, with his hitai-ite turned to the side, with the metal piece on the side of his head. The bottom of his face was wrapped in cloth, keeping his mouth hidden. The most notable thing I noticed about the part of his face that was visible was his lack of eyebrows.

"Impressive," he said. "I guess you kids aren't as idiotic as you look."

"Who in the hell are you?" Kureiga yelled out as he reached into one of his holsters and pulling out a pair or shuriken.

"..." The figure glared at Kureiga for a moment. "I'm Zabuza. You should really watch how you talk to your elders," the mysterious figure said. "Especially those who can kill you without a moment's notice." Kureiga merely scoffed as I started to reach behind my back, reaching for a kunai of my own.

"You say that, but you're way up there while we're down here. Honestly, do you think you impress me, having your shirt off and standing on top of a huge blade? The only thing that tells me is that a certain area is lacking equip-"

"That's enough!" Kakashi said. "Surround Tazuna!"

"But Sensei," I protested. He looked back at me.

"That's an order, Naruto!" Kakashi brought his hand towards his hitai-ite. He then lifted it up, revealing his left eye. My eyes widened in surprised.

His left eye, unlike his right eye, was red. And around his pupil were three red spots. They looked like apostrophes. Sasuke also saw the eye and were pale at the sight of it.

"Ah… so you have the infamous Kakashi with you…" Zabuza said.

"Infamous?" Sakura said as she backed away towards Tazuna.

"Do you not know about your own comrade?" I looked over at Kakashi. "Amongst the Leaf is one of the most dangerous ninja's alive, a man who possesses an eye that belongs to a certain bloodline. That bloodline is that of the Uchiha Clan." Kureiga, Sakura, and I turned towards Sasuke. His eyes were still locked on Kakashi. "That eye is the Sharingan."

"Sharingan?" I said. "What's that, dattebayo?"

"It's a doujutsu… an eye technique," Sasuke said. "It allows the user to see chakra flow in a person. It can also see through genjutsu and allow the user to be able perceive things much more clearly."

"And that's not all," Zabuza said. "Because of that little eye Kakashi has, he is a able to copy an technique he wishes. That's how he got his name: The Copy Ninja, the man who knows over one thousand jutsus."

"What?!" Kureiga yelled out before turning towards Kakashi, eyes widened.

"That may be a little bit exaggerated," Kakashi said. "But I know all about you, too. Zabuza, infamous Demon of the Mist. To whom do I owe the pleasure?"

"You already know why I'm here," Zabuza said. "It's nothing personal. But my client wants this man dead."

"I guess that's too fucking bad," Kureiga said as the four of us moved to surround Tazuna. I was to his left, while Sakura was to his right. Kureiga was behind Tazuna as Sasuke stood in the front. "You're not touching him."

"Really?" Zabuza said calmly he crouched down and grabbed the hilt of his ridiculously large sword. "I beg to differ." In a flash, he disappeared.

Kureiga

I am a trash talker, and I'm a wiseass. And I'm proud about being both a trash talker and wiseass. Always have been, and always will be. But with that said, there were a few times I wished I kept my mouth shut. And this was one of them.

"Over there, on the water!" Sakura yelled out. I didn't bother moving from my position to see what she was talking about.

As we stood, surrounding the Tazuna, I started to get scared again. I couldn't shake the feeling that this Zabuza guy was a lot more dangerous than those Demon Brothers that Kakashi left tied to a tree. From my position, I couldn't tell what was happening. However, I knew something was up when the mist started appear in the air. Normally, I would care less about mist in the air. However, the mist was so thick that I had a hard time seeing everything three feet in front of me.

"Eight choices!" I heard a voice say. The mist became thicker, reducing my range of vision. It clicked in my head. This mist wasn't some random occurrence. It was a jutsu being used by that guy. "Liver, lungs. Clavicle vein, spine. Neck vein, brain. Heart, kidneys. Which one should I choose?"

"Fuck you!" I yelled out.

"I guess I'll start with you!"

In a flash, Zabuza was in front of me, sword poised to slice me in two. Even to this present day, that moment still ranks on my list of the scariest moments in my life as a shinobi. I remembered when my dad would used to tell me scary stories, during Halloween, of a demon whose size was only eclipsed by the sword he carried, and I felt like I was sucked into one of those stories. As the blade neared me, I legitimately thought that I was going to die on my first mission.

However, before the sword could reach me, Kakashi appeared in front of me in a flash, with his hand wrapped around the front strap of Zabuza's sheath. Zabuza was then flung over Kakashi's head. I looked over my shoulder to see that the Tazuna was safe. I scowled in anger at myself.

"Kureiga," I heard Kakashi say. I looked up at him. He gave me a smile. "Don't be afraid. I won't let my comrades die." I gave him a tight frown before I nodded. My eyes then widened as Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi."

"Sensei, watch out!" I yelled out. But it was too late. In an instant, Zabuza swung the huge sword as if it was a kendo stick. Kakashi's top half rose slightly as his body was sliced in two. However, his body dissolved into water.

"He copied me?!" Zabuza said in disbelief. In an instant, Kakashi (the real one) reappeared behind Zabuza. He reached around and pressed a kunai to the enemy ninja's throat.

"It's over," Kakashi said. Zabuza shoulders quivered as he chuckled at the statement.

"Over?" he said. "It's over? Do you honestly think you can defeat me with such a monkey technique?!" Zabuza dissolved into water, which fell to the ground.

"Behind you, Sensei!" I heard Naruto say. In an instant, Zabuza was behind Kakashi. Kakashi looked over his shoulder to Zabuza swung his sword. Kakashi ducked, narrowly dodging the attack. However, Zabuza redirected the sword, making the blade slice into the dirt. He then used the blade to stop his momentum as he swung a kick towards Kakashi side, which landed with enough force to send Kakashi flying to a lake I didn't even know was nearby. Kakashi skidded across the lakes surface before digging his hands into it, with Zabuza diving in to the lake of water after him. Kakashi stood up, looking towards land to try and find Zabuza. However, Zabuza rose up behind, the water around Kakashi rose and surrounded him, trapping him in a nigh-perfect sphere, with Zabuza's hand inside of the orb of water.

Sasuke

Another part of the water rose and formed a figure. After a few moments, it took on the looks of Zabuza. I scowled.

"Another water clone?" I said in a irritated tone.

"So you are the people they sent with Kakashi to protect Tazuna," the clone said in disbelieving tone. "Pathetic." This irritated me even more. It was one thing to be talked down to. But to be talked down through a clone was one of worse disrespects one could commit.

"Yeah, we're the ones who were sent," Kureiga said. "Remember, we're Leaf-nin?"

"Leaf-nin?" the clone repeated. I slowly inched my hands towards my holster. "You actually call yourselves ninja? Do you know what a real ninja is? A real ninja is someone who had many brushes with death and survives. What you done? Chase around a cat across a landscape?" I remained silent, as did the rest of us. There was nothing we could say to that last statement. "You all are just a bunch of punks running around with headbands and ninja tools."

"Punk this!" I yelled out as I pulled out three shuriken and threw them at the clone. The clone disappeared. I looked around, trying to find him before I felt a huge kick to my left side. My body angled as it left the ground for a few moments before I fell to the ground. I looked up to see Kureiga caught in the air in mid-kick by the clone, with one hand. With that same hand, the clone promptly slammed him into the ground, face first.

"Stupid punk," he said. "Do you really think that would work on me?" I then heard the sounds of mini-explosions. I looked up at the sky to see a whole swarm of Naruto's falling from it. "Bunshin? You think regular bunshin could - ?" He was caught off guard when a clone managed to land a kick across his jaw. The Zabuza-cloned staggered backward before catching his footing as the rest of the Naruto's fell on the ground. "So, you managed to learn such a technique…" The clone then drew his sword and, with speed that defied logic when you considered the size of the weapon, slashed threw the hordes clones in mere seconds. "Too bad it didn't work out." He slammed the hilt of the sword into Naruto's gut. Naruto fell over on his knees. Zabuza then knelt down next to Naruto as he favored his stomach and spoke.

"Allow me to tell you a little story," Zabuza said. "Back in Kirigakure, the ninja academy used to do something a little special for their graduates. You see, each of the graduates would be paired off one by one. Then they would fight each other to the death. The survivor of each pair would then go on to become genin. It was because of this method that Kiri's academy was known as The Slaughterhouse. One by one, students kill the same person that they eat with, learned with, and shared their dreams with. Now tell me, how would you react if I told you I was the only graduate of my class? And the best part is… I wasn't even a graduate at the time. The instructors called me a prodigious murderer." I watched as Naruto trembled with fear. I couldn't blame him. "I always keep a bingo book on me. In that book is a list of people who deserved the right to be called a shinobi. And until you make that list, you're nothing to me."

Zabuza then performed what was, arguably, the most disrespectful thing one shinobi could do to another. He reached down and pulled one end of Naruto's hitai-ite, undoing the knot that kept it tied to his head. Then, with the end of the fabric still in the grip of his finger and thumb, he pulled it off of Naruto. My eyes widened at such a display. The clone then turned and walked away.

"Kureiga… Sasuke… Naruto…." My eyes turned back towards Sakura as she ran to our side. A part of me started to simmer as I wondered where she was this whole time. "Are you okay?"

"I'm good Sakura," Kureiga replied. He was on his knees, rubbing his face, which was covered bloodied scrapes and bruises. "Though he was kind of harsh." He then looked over at Naruto. "How about you, Short Stack? Are you okay?" Naruto groaned for a moment before bringing himself to his feet. He then looked forward at the clone of Zabuza, who was walking towards Tazuna, who had his back against a tree.

"I have a plan…" I heard him say in a growl. "I have a plan, dattebayo."

"Plan?" Kureiga said. "We could use one. Whatcha got in mind?"

"I'm going to need all three of you guys for this…"

As he went over the details of his plan, I was actually impressed by his ability to formulate one. Granted, the plan had some flaws that could be exploited, but under the circumstances, it more than forgivable.

"Alright, let's do this before Tazuna becomes a butcher meat," Kureiga said as he brought his hands together into seals with turning towards Zabuza's direction. "Lightning Release: Thunderbolt!" He brought his right hand outwards and aimed towards the clone's feet. The clone looked towards Kureiga before leaping out of the way as the blue stream of lightning flew through the air, leaving Tazuna to take the hit. The bolt struck the ground and enveloped the area in a blue-white flash. Once the flash dissipated, two charred logs were left on the ground.

"Did I not just say you're not touching him?" Kureiga taunted. He then looked over his right shoulder to see Sakura standing behind him, holding up Tazuna.

"You got lucky, punks," he said coolly.

"Really?" Kureiga said. "Write this in your Bingo Book. 'Team 7: Bunch of punks that managed to handle a missing-nin'."

"And what makes you think you're going to come out of this alive?"

"Why don't you ask my friend who's about to retrieve his hitai-ite?"

Before Zabuza could react, he was instantly covered in a swarm of Narutos, with one of them snatching the hitai-ite from Zabuza's hand and instantly tied around his head. However, Zabuza, showing his monstrous strength, shrugged off the clones, sending them flying towards me. One of them took off his back before disappearing, leaving the backpack to land at my feet. I smiled evilly as I picked up the knapsack and reached into it.

"So, you managed to acquire one of these," I said as I pulled out a Fuma Shuriken. "I must say, you have good taste in weapons." I spun the huge shuriken around my head, unfolding all of the blades. "Eat this!" I brought my arm backward before throwing the shuriken forward. As the huge shuriken flew through the air, the clone quickly jumped over it.

"Still using tricks, punk?" the clone said.

"I wasn't aiming for you, baka!" I replied back. The shuriken kept of flying through the air, zeroing in on my real target: The Real Zabuza. Zabuza eyes widened before he ducked underneath the bladed weapon.

"Nice try," Zabuza yelled out. I scoffed slightly as the shuriken burst into smoke, revealing it to be Naruto, who quickly threw three regular sized shuriken. This caused Zabuza to remove his hand from the water orb that trapped Kakashi. Naruto then dove into the water.

"Stupid punks!" Zabuza yelled out as he unsheathed his sword. However, his arm was promptly grabbed by Kakashi.

Kakashi

It's been a while since this happened. I was in a state I wasn't in for a quite a while.

Basically put, I was officially pissed off.

As I was stuck in Zabuza's Water Prison, I looked on as he not only talked down to my students, but talked down to them to my students through a clone. I saw his clone dispatch them one by one. And most importantly, he committed the one disrespect to Naruto that only the most vial of ninja deserved.

"They are not punks," I said. "They are ninja who not only thwarted your attempt to kill Tazuna, but they forced you release me from my prison." My eyes narrowed. "I would say that you should write their names in your bingo book, since they deserve the honor, but after what you did to them, you won't live long enough to get the chance." We both parted as we jumped backward. Each of us landed on top of the water surface again, putting seven feet between us.

"Big talk, Copy Ninja," Zabuza said. "But can you survive this?!" He brought his hands together in seals. I smiled underneath my mask, for I knew I was going to enjoy this. I felt my Sharingan activate as I brought my hands together, matching him seal for seal.

"WATER RELEASE: WATER DRAGON TECHNIQUE!" we both yelled at the same time. Behind each of us, a tall column rose up into the sky, forming into a dragon. Both of the dragons twisted through the sky before crashing into each other. As the water fell into the lake, Zabuza and I ran at each other. He had his Decapitating Knife drawn and brought downward. I immediately reached into my holster and pulled out a kunai. I slashed as his weapon with a resounding _clang! _We both struggled for leverage for a few moments before we parted again.

This was where things became fun.

As we parted again, I immediately mirrored his movements. His eyes widened again as we both run around the center of the lake in a circle. I inwardly smirked as he realized what was happening. I was matching him move for move. We stopped at the same time, and as he brought his right hand to his mouth in a seal and his left arm up into the sky, I mirrored those actions very well. He started to speak out loud. He was under my Sharingan's other ability: Hypnosis. He was thinking that he was merely thinking those thoughts of him, when in reality, he was speaking out loud.

"My movement... He's completely -" Zabuza started to say.

"- reading them," I completed for him.

"What? Did he just read my mind? Damn! That…"

"'…freaky eye is pissing me off.' Is that what you wanted to say?"

"Heh, all you are doing is copying me!"

"You can't beat me you monkey bastard!" we both said at the same time. He scowled.

"Damn… I'll make it so you never open that mouth again!" he said in frustration as he sped up the formation of his hand seals. He still didn't get it. While he was really forming them fast, my eye made it seem as if he was slowly introducing the concept of hand seals to an academy student. I matched him seal for seal again. This time, however, I adjusted my hypnosis, making him think I was no longer copying him. I knew what he was seeing. He was seeing an apparition of himself over my back, and he saw me being one seal ahead of him. Normally, I'd kill him already, but after what he did earlier, I wanted to make sure he remembered me when I sent him packing into the afterlife.

"WATER RELEASE: GRAND WATERFALL TECHNIQUE!" I yelled out. The water in the lake rose up as his eyes widened. As if it was some great flood, the water surged forward, pushing Zabuza back into the forest. The water flowed back into the lake, but Zabuza was flying through the air before slamming to the tree. In an instant, I jumped into the branch closest to Zabuza. Zabuza looked up at me with a look of fear. I felt a visceral joy from the sight.

"Can you see the future?" he asked me. I reach into his holster and pulled out a kunai.

"As a matter of fact I can," I said. "And I predict… that you're going to die soon."

Before I could land the finishing blow, two senbon needles flew through the air and plunged through Zabuza's neck. Zabuza fell forward, and I looked over at a tree to see a figure standing on another branch.

"I must say, your prediction was spot on," he said. The boy wore a white mask that had tiny slits for eyes. On the forehead was the symbol of the Hidden Mist, and the mask had a red swirl pattern on the bottom half of it. He had black hair, with two long bangs hanging at each side of the mask, with each tied at the end with white bands. He wore a grey-brown gown with a black pinstripe pattern. Over it was a black robe-like shirt with a white trim, tied at the waist by a scarf-like sash.

I dropped down from the branch and landed next to Zabuza's body. I flipped his body and I pressed my fingers against his jugular vein.

"No pulse," I said. "He really is dead." I then looked up at the figure on the branch. "You must be a Hunter-Nin."

"Hunter-Nin?" Kureiga said. I looked over my shoulder to see the rest of the group. To my relief, Tazuna didn't appear to even suffer a scratch. "What's that?"

"We hunt Missing-Nin," the hunter said. "I belong to The Mist. As such, I've been waiting for a chance to kill Zabuza for a while now. I really must thank you and your team."

"HEY!" Naruto yelled out, pointing upward at the Hunter-Nin. "Who the hell are you?!"

"What's with you, Short Stack?" Kureiga asked. Naruto turned towards him with a look of anger.

"Zabuza was just killed. A strong guy was just killed by him! A boy who is not even older than us! What does that say about us? Are we really that weak, dattebayo?!" I looked down at Naruto's fist to see them clenched. I frowned slightly before standing up and walking over to him. I then placed my hand on top of his head and ruffled his hair.

"I understand how you feel," I said. "But, in this world, there are people who are younger than you, but stronger than me." The four genin went silent. Naruto looked off to the side as Sasuke scowled. Kureiga looked up at the Hunter-Nin, shaking his head awe. Sakura looked up at me, trying to see if I was joking. I wasn't. In the world of ninja, age doesn't really mean anything. Sure, most of the time, an older ninja with more experience can trump a younger, less experienced one. However, as I learned in the past, it was not too uncommon for a ninja to face another one that was younger and less experienced then him, and yet be outmatched. Seeing my team's reactions to what I told them was like looking at an image of my younger self.

I turned back towards the Hunter-Nin to see her draping Zabuza's arm over her body.

"I really must go now," he said. "I really do thank you for engaging him. I will go dispose of his body, now. Farewell." They both disappeared in a puff smoke.

"Woo!" Kureiga yelled out. "Two ninja attacks on one mission. I think we're officially on B-ranked status."

"More like A, to tell the truth," I said. "Now, let's get going. We have to get Tazuna home safe."

"HAHAHAHAHA!" Tazuna yelled out. "Thanks a lot. Let's get home so you could relax!"

"That would be greatly appreciated," I said as I collapsed to the ground. "I used the Sharingan too much. Naruto, Kureiga, could you two carry me?"

Sakura

It took us a long while before we got to Tazuna's home. It wasn't a long way from where we were, but with Kureiga and Naruto carrying Kakashi-sensei, it took us a while to get there. During those moments, it was kind of tense. Even though Zabuza was dead, we were still on the lookout for anyone else who wanted to kill Tazuna, and with Kakashi in his state, we worry about protecting two people for the time being. However, we were able to reach his home without incident.

The home was very typical of one you would see in an island setting. It was made out of wood, and it was two stories, with the second story looking smaller than the first one, since it was housed some rooms. On the other side of the house was the sea, and there was a boardwalk that lead out to it.

Once we reached the home, we were greeted at the door by Tazuna's daughter, Tsunami. She was a somewhat tall woman, a few inches shorter than Kakashi-sensei. After seeing the state Kakashi was in, she was quick to grab a sleeping bag and prepare a room for him.

"Sensei, are you okay?" she asked Kakashi. The masked jounin merely nodded as he laid on his back in the sleeping bag.

"Yeah," Kakashi said. "I just can't move from this sleeping bag for about a week."

"What?" I said as I crouched next to him. "The Sharingan is incredible, but if it drains you that much, then you should be careful about how you use it."

"Speaking of which…" Kureiga said. He was standing in the corner of a room, bandages covering the scrapes and bruises on his face. "How did you gain Sharingan in the first place? You're not even a Uchiha, are you?"

"…That's a story for another time," Kakashi said.

"If you say so." Kureiga sighed. "I'm just glad we don't have to worry about the big bad Zabuza anymore. That guy is just freakishly strong."

"That is to be expected." Kakashi sighed. "He was one of the members of the Seven Swordsmen of The Mist. Specializing in kenjutsu, they are the strongest jonin in Kirigakure. Each of them held a title and wielded a unique sword. In Zabuza's case, he was called the Demon of The Mist and he wielded the Decapitating Carving Knife, the weapon you saw him wield. Because of his methods of killing, it was made specifically for decapitating." Subconsciously, everyone else in the room, other than Sasuke, rubbed the side of their necks.

"Well, we do not have to worry about having our heads mounted on the wall." Kureiga laughed nervously at his own joke, obviously not finding such an occurrence favorable. "What are they going to do with his body anyway?"

"Hunter-Nin of the Mist doesn't only go after missing-Nin. Once they find and kill their target, they'll make sure that their body is disposed of completely, which resulted in their other name: Body-Erasers."

"Why is it such a big deal to dispose of their body that way?" I asked.

"Even in death, the body of a ninja could be very valuable to the enemy. The body of a ninja can hold many secrets about the village, amongst other things. If someone was to kill me and capture my body, they could learn the secrets of the Sharingan. Could you imagine fighting a whole army of Sharingan users?"

"That would be scary, dattebayo!" Naruto commented. He was sitting right next to Kureiga, who nodded in agreement.

"It is…" I said. "But… if all he is going to do is dispose of Zabuza's body, then why did she need to disappear with the body for?"

We all went silent when I said. No one said anything for a few minutes, but I had a feeling that we all knew the reason. We just didn't want to say it.

"What's wrong?" Tsunami said. In response, Kureiga put his face in his hands and let off a sound that sounded like a cross between a bitter laugh and a sad sob.

"He's not dead, is he?" he said. Kakashi slowly shook his head.

"It would appear that he is not dead after all," he said. "The weapons the Hunter used were senbon needles. They weren't weapons you would use if you want to guarantee a kill."

"But… how did he survive?!" Naruto said. "You said he was dead. You even checked him, dattebayo?!"

"There are certain… points in the neck that can be struck that can put someone in a death-like state. So, unfortunately, we're going to have to deal with Zabuza again in the near future." Kureiga scoffed slightly.

"…So, let me get this straight. We spent all that time fighting Zabuza, and he backdoors his way out from getting killed? If this isn't a Fuck My Life moment, I don't know what is." Normally, I'd punched him on the top of his head for his language. However, I couldn't quite blame him. He was in a bad mood, and for good reason. Zabuza was very scary. More scary than both of the Demon Brothers combined. We did everything we could to fight off that monster, only to find out we were going to have to face him again. "So, is there any good news?"

"Well, he shouldn't be able to move for a week. So, during that time, I'm going to put you through some special training as soon as tomorrow. But for now, rest."

Haku

I looked down at my tools on the ground. Each one of them had a specific purpose. I looked back down at the body, thinking about how I was going to start the process. I turned back to my tools and picked up a small scalpel.

"I'll start with the bandages," I said. "That way I can drain the blood." I brought the scalpel towards the cloth that covered his mouth. However, just before the blade made contact, a strong hand to grab my wrist. I looked into the eyes of Zabuza, who used his other hands lower the cloth covering his mouth.

"Don't bother," he said, his voice sounding gargled. His shark-like teeth was slightly pink from blood. "I'll do it myself." He released my hand as he sat up before he started coughing up and spitting out blood from his mouth. I frowned slightly as he took a few minutes to finish. He coughed one last time before looking at me. "Why do you still carry around that mask?"

"It reminds me of old times," I said as I removed it. "I didn't hurt you too much, did I?" He groaned slightly.

"No, but I wish you didn't use my neck as a strike point!" he said grumpily as he removed the two senbon needles.

"It's all I could do," I said simply. "It was the only pressure point I could hit, since you don't have a lot of hard muscle there. Besides… I didn't want to damage that beautiful body of yours." Zabuza looked over at me, narrowing his eyes.

"Haku… you really are too innocent for your own good." I merely smiled in reply. I then sighed.

"Unfortunately, you won't be able to move for at least a week." Zabuza scowled.

"That's fine. The bridge is still two weeks away from being finished. By that time, I'll kill them all." He tightened his fists. "And I'll take my time with that Copy Ninja. I'll slaughter all of his students in front of his face before I decapitate him."

Naruto

I struggled to breathe after Kureiga told his story. He turned towards me.

"You okay, Short Stack?" he asked rhetorically. "You look like you're in stitches."

"HAHAHAHA, we all are!" Tazuna said.

We were all in the dining room next to the kitchen later on that night. As we ate some rice and chicken, Kureiga was entertaining us all with some stories. We all laughed at them, except for Sasuke (though he did manage a small smile every now and again).

"One more, please?" Sakura asked. Everyone agreed.

"Okay," Kureiga said. "I'll give you one more. You see, a few years ago, back when we were still at the academy, I was sparring with Kiba. Basically, it was an all out spar. Ninjutsu, taijutsu… everything was allowed, barring weapons. So, we were really going at it, and it became an all out fight. Now, at the same time, back at the Kazama Pastry Shop, my dad was disposing on some extremely sticky dough. So, as usual, he pulls it around the side of the shop so it can be picked up by sanitation. Thing is, it's also where I keep my logs for substitution. So, Kiba was about to attack me with Tunneling Fang Technique, and I quickly used a substitution. But instead of a log taking my place, it was the sticky dough. Long story short, the instructors had to spend an hour to pull him out of the dough."

The whole room was in hysterics. Even Sasuke chuckled at that last statement.

"I'm not going to let Kiba live this one down, 'tebayo!" I yelled out.

"Excuse me, could you please keep it down?" I heard a voice say. We all became silent as we turned towards the source of the voice. It belonged to a short boy that wore a white shirt under black overalls. On top of his head were black hair and a blue and white brimmed hat. He was standing right in front of the starewell.

"Sorry Inari," Tsunami said. She then smiled. "I want you to meet some new friends of ours. They are ninja from Konoha. They are here to protect your grandfather." He turned towards us, looking at each of us one by one.

"They are all going to die," he said simply. He then turned around and walked upstairs. We all sat thre, dumbfounded.

"Did that just happen?" Kureiga said, scowling.

"Please forgive Inari," Tazuna said after a sip from his beer. "He's been that way since Kaiza died." Tsunami looked down at the ground in sadness. I frowned slightly.

"Kureiga, please come with me, dattebayo," I said as I stood up.

"Another spar?" he replied as he stood up. I nodded. The spar was all I could do to keep me from running into that boy's room and yelling at him.


	6. Land of Waves Arc: Training

Kureiga

Naruto and I stood across from each, with only about six feet between us. This was the second time we ever sparred. However, a lot of things were different. We were both coming off of weeks of training under Maito Gai, and it showed.

Our stances were different from the last time. Naruto's body was turned to the side, with his left shoulder turned towards me. He was bouncing slightly, shifting his weight back and forth between his left and right foot. His left hand was lowered near his waist and his right hand hovered above his mid section. As for my stance, most of my weight was on my right leg. My left leg was out in front, bent at the knee with the tips of my left foot just barely touching the ground. My arms were up, with my hand balled into fists, bent forward and turned towards Naruto.

Off to the side, stood the rest of our team near the rest of our team, along with Tazuna. The latter was curious to see how we fought. Kakashi-sensei, who stood up on crutches, was standing between Sakura and Sasuke.

"Are you two ready?" said Kakashi. We both nodded at the same time. "Go!"

Naruto was the one to start this off as he rushed forward, which was typical of him. As he got close enough, he lifted his left hand up, prompting me to send my right hand toward his limb. However, he quickly dropped his right hand and sent his right fist into my stomach. I stumbled backward as I doubled over. I looked up before I jumped to my right, avoiding downward heel kick that would have spelt my doom. I dropped down to my feet and sent my right leg around in a sweep. It caught his right left foot, causing him to stumble. I rose up and brought my hands forward to catch him in a clinch. However, he brought his hands upward and used them to slap my arms outward, thwarting my clinch. He sent a straight right-handed punch towards my jaw. I ducked underneath and sent my right elbow into his stomach. As he doubled over, I used my left leg to jump as I brought my right knee into his face. He staggered backward as he righted him up from pain. I followed up the knee with a strike from my right elbow. He dropped down, however, and replied with a leg sweep of his own. I was taken off my feet as I fell onto my left side. As I turned on my back, Naruto tried to follow that up with another attempt with a downward heel kick. I turned towards my body to the right, his heel grazing my right shoulder.

I took this time to windmill my legs through the air. I caught him across the face with my left foot. As he stumbled backward once again, I performed a kip up to get to my feet and tried another clinch. This time, I succeeded. I sent my knees into his midsection, alternating each limb back and forth. I was in control of the match, but only for a bit. One of my knees was caught in the arms of Naruto. He then used his strength to lift me up for a second and slammed me on my back. I clenched my jaw as I sat up. I then laid down again, his foot missing my faces by a mere centimeter before I recovered and scrambled to my feet.

"That's enough," our sensei said. I dropped my stance and nodded towards Naruto, smiling.

"Guess I don't have to pick you up off the floor this time," I said with a chuckle. "Nice job." Naruto rubbed the back of his head, blushing slightly.

"You weren't so bad yourself, dattebayo," he answered back. I smirked as I turned towards my other two teammates. What really caught my attention was the look on Sasuke's face. He normally held a neutral, almost uncaring expression on his face, except when he is angry or, during immensely rare occasions, when he smiles. However, his face had a subtle hint of surprise. It was so subtle that if it wasn't for the fact that Sasuke's range of facial expression was, as far as I knew, limited, I wouldn't have noticed.

I looked towards Sakura, who also had a look of surprise on her face, mixed with confusion. Her eyes were locked on Naruto for a few moments as if he was a different person from before. She then looked off to the side, whispering a few things to herself.

"Very good," Kakashi said, nodding. "You two have improved tremendously. I'm glad you two are taking your training seriously. Now go get ready for bed. I have some special training for you all to go through tomorrow morning." Naruto and I both nodded before we started to head back into the house.

"Um….Sasuke?" Sakura started to ask. Sasuke stopped in his tracks before he looked over at her. "I was just wondering… I'm heading into town tomorrow, and I was wondering if –"

"Not interested," Sasuke said bluntly before continued on his way towards the house.

"That was harsh," I commented. Naruto scowled at Sasuke before turning towards Sakura.

"I'll go to town with, Sakura-chan," Naruto offered.

"Why would I want to go to town with you?" she said bluntly before she turned away, heading towards the house herself. Naruto scowled, closing his eyes as he bowed his head, hurt by the rejection.

"That was even _harsher_." I shook my head.

Truthfully, the romantic situation with my team caught my interest, much like how a carriage accident catches the attention of bystanders on the street. Naruto liked Sakura, who, in turn, liked Sasuke, who, in turn, didn't even seemed to be familiar with the concept of romance. It would have funny to me if it wasn't such a shame. Naruto and Sakura were in love with someone who didn't even return their feelings.

"Why do you like Sakura?" I asked, turning towards Naruto.

"What do you mean?" Naruto replied, raising his head.

"Why do you like Sakura? I mean, there must be a reason."

"Well…. She's smart. She's beautiful. And she's nice, 'tebayo!"

I considered what he said for a few moments. Was she smart? No doubt, she was. She knew a lot of stuff that I didn't know. Plus, she was the top student in our class when it came to academics, even trumping Sasuke in that area. Was she beautiful? I tend to think so. She had a beautiful set of green eyes that went well that unique head of pink hair. Sure, she had a big forehead, but nobody's perfect. Was she nice?

HEEEEEEEEELL NO!

She had to be one of the meanest girls I ever met. She was always quick to punch anyone who's not Sasuke, which I found rather ironic considering that she got on me for being violent. Plus, I always hated watching Naruto or anyone else ask her out. Don't get me wrong, I'm not getting on her for turning down someone. She has as much right to do so as everyone else on this planet. What really ticked me off was how she did it. Not only would she say no, she'd take the extra effort to make the person feel like crap for even _thinking_ they had a chance with her. And just to add cherry on top of that sundae, she often berates Naruto for repeatedly asking her out when she always say no.

Yes, you read that right. The girl who constantly asks out Sasuke despite the fact that he had constantly, in no uncertain terms, made it perfectly clear that he wasn't even the least bit interested in her, was berating Naruto for constantly asking her out. I'll leave you to take in the irony.

"Well, I hope you know what you're doing," I said as I made my way into the house. To this day, I always wondered why I didn't say anything at this point. I could have easily took him aside and told him flat out why Sakura wasn't worth it. But I didn't.

Later, that would come back and haunt me.

I tried my best to go to sleep that night, but I wasn't quite able to. With the thoughts of the earlier battle still fresh in my mind, I kept on fearing that if I went to sleep, I'd wake up just in time to see Zabuza's blade come down upon my neck. Was I paranoid? Maybe I was. But you know what? Try coming _this_ close to getting decapitated and not be paranoid. And what made it worse was that I knew for _fact_ that we had to face him again.

I sat up in my sleeping bag, deciding to give up on sleeping. I buried my face into my hands, sighing. I was scared and pissed. I was scared because there was a good chance I was going to die. And I was pissed off because I knew for a fact I wasn't supposed to worry about a guy like Zabuza on a C-Ranked mission.

I lifted my head up, looking up at the wall, trying to figure out what I did to deserve my current position. That was when heard a thumping noise, coming from downstairs. I sighed as I stood up and reached for my knapsack. I unzipped one of the compartments and reached into it, fiddling around until I pulled out a kunai. I then stood up from my sleeping bag, clad only in a black pair of boxers and a black t-shirt. I sighed as I slowly walked out of the room. I made to the stairs before I used them to quietly creep towards the first floor. I moved slow, not wanting to alert the intruder presence. I finally reached the bottom of the floor and moved the kunai around my hand until the ring of the weapon was between my index and middle finger. I then turned the corner, bringing my hand up to throw the kunai (which, in hindsight, wouldn't have been a good idea, considering that I only had one kunai on my person).

I stopped myself, however, when Kakashi look up at me, slightly surprised. He was sitting at the table, with a glass of water in front of him and his crutches leaning up against the table. I sighed as I lowered my hand and shook my head.

"….Yo…" Kakashi said in greeting. I looked up and nodded at him. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I lied as I walked over to one of the cupboards. Truth be told, I wasn't in the mood to talk about it. I opened one of the cupboards, grabbed a cup, and closed the cupboard's door before I walked over to the table and had a seat across from Kakashi.

"You're afraid," he said. I didn't respond. Instead, I grabbed the pitcher of water and poured its contents into my cup as he said this. After pouring enough water, I placed the pitcher into its previous place. I took a sip before setting the cup back down. "You know, you shouldn't let yourself get rattled."

"Easy for you to say," I said bitterly. "You're a Jonin that knows a whole lot of techniques and have an eye that many would give their left nut… or even both to have. I'm just a genin who, prior to this mission, had zero experience. Oh, and let's not forget that I'm supposed be on _C-Ranked_ mission, not an _A-_ranked!"

"So you're angry about this."

"Of course," I said before I took another sip. "Wouldn't you be?"

"…You're not too familiar with the ranking system, are you?" he said. I looked at Kakashi, head tilted, as he stared back at me with his one lone eye. "The thing about mission rankings is… that they are very fluid. When you're out doing a mission, things can change quickly. You may go to a certain place to handle a minor threat and come back from taking on a Missing-Nin. It was made this way so ninjas could be fairly compensated for the services. After all, how would you feel about merely getting paid D-ranked money for a D-ranked mission when you happen to defeat a ninja while carrying your objectives? But I digress. The point is… you have to be ready for everything and never expect things to go the way they are supposed to. Though granted… not even I expected to run into Zabuza. Say, Kureiga, do you trust me?"

"It's kind of hard not to when you saved me from becoming part of The Headless Genin," I replied.

"Then believe me when I say you'll get through his. Especially after the training that I'm going to put you through. Alright?"

"…" I pressed my tongue against the inside of my cheek. I then nodded. "It must be some great training."

Kakashi

"I'm sorry, we're doing _what_ now?!" Kureiga said.

"We're going to climb trees," I replied.

The following morning, the whole team had an early breakfast. During that meal, the four genin were really excited about that training. Kakashi kept on cracking his knuckles in anticipation. Sakura kept on asking what the training would be. Sasuke ate faster than he usually did. And Naruto claimed that by the end of this training, he'll be able to "kick Zabuza's ass" (before he was promptly punched on the top of the head by Sakura for cursing). After the meal, I lead them to a forested area not too far away from the house. I picked the area since it was the first one I could find that four trees next to each other that was relatively the same height. That was when I told them about the type of training they were going through: Tree climbing.

Their reactions, while varied, were expected. Naruto's jaw would have been on the floor had we existed in a cartoon. Sakura raised her right eyebrow at me questioningly. Sasuke looked at me as if I tricked him into going on a date with one of his many adoring female fans. And Kureiga…

"Thank you Kakashi-sensei. Because of this brilliant idea for training, I will have the skill and confidence to take on a man who could handle a ridiculously large sword as it was a kunai and use it to slice through my neck as if it was made out of rice paper. Please, Sensei, impart on me, thy knowledge of the Deadly Art of Tree Climbing."

… was his normal sarcastic self.

"We already know how to climb trees, dattebayo!" Naruto exclaimed.

"True," I said as I used my crutches to walk up to a tree. I brought my hands together in a seal, diverting some chakra towards my feet. Once that was done, I gripped the handle of my crutches and placed one foot against the trunk of a tree. "But do you know how to climb trees like this?" I then brought my other foot up as I began to walk up the trunk of the tree as if I was treading ground. I kept on walking until I reached halfway up the trunk. I then turned around walked back towards the ground. Once I reached the ground, I looked over at the four genin, each with a look surprise on their faces.

"I retract every word of my earlier sarcastic statement," Kureiga said.

"But that still doesn't explain how that's going to help us," Sakura said.

"This exercise will help with chakra control," I replied. "The more control you have over your chakra, the easier it will be for you to use in battle and create jutsus."

Naruto bowed his head and closed his eyes. It was something he did whenever he was mulling over a subject. He then opened his eyes and asked the one question I didn't expect him to ask.

"What's chakra?"

Sakura tilted her head and looked at him, eyes widened in surprise. She then shook her head before opening her mouth. Before she could speak, Kureiga cut in.

"Chakra is a mixture of the energy present in every cell of the body and the spiritual energy gained from exercise and experience," the black-clad genin explained. "Once those two energies are mixed, they can be channeled through the Chakra Circulatory System in the body to be molded to create jutsus, like my lightning attacks."

Naruto nodded at Kureiga, who nodded back. The latter then gave me an aside glance. I shrugged at him before continuing.

"Now with that out of the way, we will begin your training," I said. "Choose a tree. Then focus on diverting a minimal amount of chakra towards the bottom of your feet. After that is done, move towards your tree and begin your climb. Due to your current level, you must make a running start since you'll be unable to merely walk up the tree. Use your kunai to mark your progress. Now begin!"

The four of them faced their respective trees before bringing their hands together in the Ram hand seal with their eyes closed. They stayed in that position for a few moments, as if they were statues. Then, as if a signal went off, they all opened their eyes, reached into their holsters and pulled out a kunai. They made a mad dash for their respective trees.

Sasuke was the first to reach his tree. As expected, he was able to reach halfway up the tree before he started to fall. He quickly slashed the bark before he kicked off the tree, performing a back flip before landing on the ground.

Naruto was next to reach his tree. He barely made it five steps before he started to fall. He quickly made his mark on the tree before falling on his back.

Kureiga was the third. While he made more progress than Naruto, he was still well behind Sasuke. As he landed on the ground, he looked over at Sasuke's tree before muttering a few words under his breath, some of which I was sure were not kosher. He then looked around.

"Hey, where's Sakura?" he asked.

"Up here!"

The four of us looked up to see Sakura standing on the top branch of the tree. The three other genin's eyes were wide.

Sakura didn't have a large chakra reserve compared to the other three. Then again, that was to be expected. Sasuke has the bloodline of one of the most prestigious clans, Naruto was the jailor of the nine-tailed fox demon, amongst other reasons, and Kureiga… well, Kureiga was lucky considering that he had no ninja background whatsoever. With that said, she had the best chakra control out of the four of them. Under my mask, I smiled.

"Great work," I said. I then looked back at the other three. "You three keep on working on it."

Sakura and I stayed for bit and watched them. In my head, I recounted the issues that each one of them had.

Naruto had a lot of untapped potential. His chakra reserves were well above that of even the average chunin, and that's not even factoring the power that his prisoner could give him. However, he is really unrefined, like a chunk of diamond taken straight from the quarry. He was a particularly hard diamond to mold, but once he is molded, the only thing that would keep him from becoming the Hokage was the prisoner he held in his belly.

Sasuke was, at this point, the best ninja out of the four. He already has a grasp on how to change his chakra into an element, thanks to his clan training. Also, he was the number one all-around student out of his graduating class. However, he was too antisocial. Granted, he has his reasons. But like I told him earlier, he looked at his teammates as if their insignificant at best and obstacles at worst. This was bad considering that he already rubbed Naruto and, to a much lesser extent, Kureiga, the wrong way.

Kureiga was an amazing prospect. As far as anyone, including himself, knows, he has no ninja background whatsoever. Despite that, he was the first person other than Sasuke to master his chakra element and graduated within the top ten of the class. And when things go as planned, he is as efficient as they come when completing his objective. Problem is, when things don't go as planned, Kureiga has a tendency to panic. And as anyone who has experience as a shinobi will tell you, things rarely go as planned or expected. While Kureiga has a lot of tools to work with, if he didn't keep himself calm in such situations, he'd be dead before he even reaches chunin.

Sakura was an interesting case in and of herself. She has a lot of potential to become strong in Genjutsu, and be a great kunoichi in general. Plus, she has a lot of focus. Problem was, she was very focused on Sasuke. I could only hope that it doesn't distract her from her training.

"Come on, Sakura," I said. I then turned towards the other three. "You guys keep on working on your training. Meet us back the house for lunch." I turned towards the house, walking towards the house.

Sakura

Kureiga was the first person to return from his training. He waved at me before sitting at the table with me. His forehead hit the table with an audible thud as he took a deep breath.

"How's Sasuke?" I asked.

"Oh I'm doing well, Sakura, thanks for asking." Kureiga said sarcastically. He then sighed. "Sasuke is still with Naruto, training."

"I see. You're taking a break?"

"Nope." He lifted his head up, sweat and grime covering his bandaged face. "I'm done."

"Really?" I said, surprised written on my face. Kureiga scoffed.

"Don't take me for a slouch."

Kureiga really surprised me during this trip. As far as everyone knew, Kureiga had no ninja blood running through his veins. However, he was able to use a chakra element, despite most ninjas without a prior ninja heritage, clan or otherwise, don't learn elements until about three years into their career. Truthfully, I misjudged Kureiga. He was a lot more powerful than what I gave him credit for.

_If only Naruto followed his example,_ I thought.

"Where's Kakashi-sensei?" Kureiga asked.

"I'm right here," Kakashi said as he carefully made his way downstairs on his crutches. "How was training Kureiga?"

"It went well. It took me a while, but I made it to the top."

"That's good," Kakashi said, smiling under his mask. "Congratulations." As he said this, Sasuke came in. "Glad to see you could join us. How was your training?"

"It was good," Sasuke said curtly as he joined the rest of us at the table.

"Man, that was very descriptive," Kureiga deadpanned. "Almost felt as if I was in your shoes." This earned him a glare from Sasuke. Kureiga merely scoffed at the display.

"Where's Naruto?" Kakashi asked.

"He's still out there," he said nonchalantly. Kureiga shook his head.

"I hope he's not overdoing it again." The black-clad nin tapped the table a few times with his index finger.

"Maybe," Sasuke said as he stood up. He then headed towards the stairs. "Call me when lunch is ready."

Kureiga watched Sasuke as he disappeared from view. He then shook his head.

"Well, Kureiga," I said. "I guess after lunch, I'll be seeing you later."

"Yeah, I guess I will," he replied as he stood up. "Be sure to bring Naruto his lunch when you check on him." He then made his way towards the stairs.

"Yeah I will… Wait, what?" I stood up from my chair and walked over to the staircase. As I stood up, I glimpsed Kakashi rubbing the bridge of his nose with his fingers. As I reached the stairwell, Kureiga was already halfway up the stairs. "Why should I go and check on Naruto?"

Kureiga stopped at the staircase for a moment. He then looked over his shoulder. "Because last time I checked, I'm not his only teammate." He said this with a subtle amount of heat in his voice. "Besides, I have to guard Tazuna after lunch, and I don't think you have anything better to do anyway."

"I do," I said. "I planned on going into town and buy something for Sa…" I trailed off as I saw Kureiga continuing his walk up stairs, muttering a few words that I couldn't make sense of, though I had a feeling those words weren't exactly kosher, knowing him. I sighed in defeat, knowing full well that I wasn't going to win with him.

So, after lunch, I was out in the forest, with a bento containing Naruto's food, heading back to the training area. I was very angry with Kureiga at the time. I didn't want to check on Naruto. If it wasn't for Kureiga, I'd be in town right at that moment. Plus, I was more than sure at the moment that he was fooling around.

I was wrong.

When I reached the area, I saw Naruto. Or more like Naruto's back. His shoulders ascended and descended slightly and repeatedly, signifying Naruto's shallow breathing. He then took a deep breath before putting his hands together in the Ram Seal. Once that was done, he ran towards the tree once again, intent of climbing the tree again. However, as soon as he planted his first foot on the trunk, he fell onto his back. He laid there for a few moments, trying to catch his breath. He then tried to stand up, only for him fall back onto his back again. He tried rise again. This time, he settled for sitting up.

I stood there watching him. I recalled all of the conversations he and Kureiga had about training. While I heard about the lengths Naruto had put himself through, I never believed it. He was always the prankster back at the academy who only talked about ramen and becoming Hokage, and never did anything right. And yet here he was, pushing his body beyond his limits just to climb a tree.

"Naruto," I called out. He turned his head towards to look at me over his shoulder.

"Sakura-chan?" he said in a whisper. He tried to stand again.

"Don't move, I coming." I walked over to him and took a seat right in front of him. I took in his features. His skin was pale and his eyes were bloodshot. His face was covered in sweat, and the fabric that made up his forehead protector was soaked in it as well, to the point where it was actually dripping. I pushed the bento towards him. Naruto looked down at it. "It's your lunch. Tsunami-dono made it." Naruto nodded as he took it.

As he ate in silence, I looked over at the tree he was using for training. Sadly, he only made it a few steps from his last spot. I looked back at him, only to see that he was already done and on his feet, ready to resume his training.

"Naruto, don't," I said. He turned towards me and gave me a questioning gaze. "You need rest. Just come back tomorrow."

"I can't," he said. He pointed at his tree. "I've worked for hours, and that's as far as I managed." He then pointed to Sasuke's tree. The slash mark ended about five feet from the halfway mark. "Sasuke, on the other hand is way ahead of me. I can't stop, 'tebayo."

I frowned at him. He was rather adamant about staying to train. However, I knew if he stayed, he'd just burn himself out like Sensei did. I pondered his situation for a moment. I then came up with a solution.

"Naruto," I said as I stood up. "I tell you what. If you come back to the house with me and rest for the rest of the day, I'll help you with climbing the tree tomorrow." Naruto's eyes widened slightly, taken aback.

"You mean it?" he said. I smiled and nodded. "Thanks a lot Sakura-chan!"

"Don't mention it," I said. "Now let's go. The sooner you rest, the earlier we can leave tomorrow morning." He nodded as the two of us began to make our way back to Tazuna's house.

Later on, that same night, we had dinner. Much to my surprise, Kureiga wasn't there. I asked everyone where he was. Naruto mentioned something about him being on the roof. After dinner was done, I made my way towards the rooftop and found Kureiga looking up at the night sky. I furrowed up my eyebrows as I walked towards him. As soon as I reached him, I planted my fist on the top of his head.

"Ow!" Kureiga yelled out. He then turned his head and glared at me. "Sakura, what the hell?!"

"That was for making me go after Naruto!"

"Is that the only reason why you came up here?" Kureiga said irritably.

"Actually, I came here because I was actually worried about you." Kureiga scoffed.

"Thanks for your concern, but you really need to work on your way of expressing it."

"Why are you even up here in the first place?" I asked, sitting down next to him.

"I'm thinking about earlier," he said. "On our way back, Tazuna and I went into town." Kureiga frowned. "Truth be told, I didn't like what I see. Struggling businesses, abandoned buildings, kids begging for a bite to eat… All these things are happening to this island, and yet Gato is still milking this country as if it was golden chimp that craps diamonds. Gato is a real a-" He stopped in mid-syllable. I knew what he wanted to say, and knew why he did stop in mid-syllable. "Gato's a real jerk. That much is apparent. I just hope we can protect Tazuna until the bridge is complete. Though, quite frankly, I hope I get to see Gato's face before we're done here."

"Why would you want to his face for?" I asked.

"So I can put my fist through it." Kureiga looked over at me and wink. I chuckled slightly before shaking my head at him.

"You're something else, you know that Kureiga?" I smiled at him. He smiled back at me.

"I know. So, I take it Short Stack was able to make his way back to the house okay."

"Yeah," I said. "The idiot was really pushing himself." I then furrowed up my eyebrow. "I didn't think he'd push himself that hard. It's surprising, really."

"No, not really," Kureiga said. "He wants to become the Hokage, the strongest ninja in the village. He's not going to take being second Sasuke lying down." I shook my head.

"Do you honestly think he can become Hokage?" I asked. "He's always screwing up everything."

"Like when he came up with a plan to save us all from having our heads mounted on a wall?"

I opened my mouth to retort, but then I closed it. I didn't have anything to say to that. I then sighed. "Touché," I conceded. "You seemed to have a lot of faith in Naruto. Why?"

Kureiga paused for a few moments before answering. "One, he busts his behind just to become a stronger ninja than where he was the _day_ before. Two, he came up with a plan to save our lives and save us from failing this mission, despite it being way above our pay grade and the circumstances at the time, so I can actually, without even batting an eye, bet stacks of ryo that he's looking out for my life and intent on passing the mission. And three… well he's our teammate. What am I supposed to do? _Not_ have faith in him?"

I tilted my head at him, thinking over what he said. I then nodded. "Fair enough, but one question. Do you have that faith in me?"

"What do you think?" Kureiga said as if the answer should be obvious. I looked at him, not satisfied with the answer. He sighed. "Of course I do." He then looked up at the stars. I smiled at him before standing up.

"I have to go," I said. "I have to be up bright and early."

"Early?" Kureiga said. "Tazuna's not going to be working on the bridge until 10 o'clock."

"I have to help Naruto tomorrow. I promised I would help him with the tree-climbing exercise so he wouldn't hurt himself."

"Ya don't say," Kureiga said. "Well, I hope you can help him. Goodnight."

"Goodnight," I said as I turned and entered the house.

The next morning, I was up and ready, walking the hall to wake up Naruto. I expected him to be still sleeping. But one again, he surprised me. When I reached the door that belonged to the room the guys were sleeping in, I knocked on the door with my knuckles.

"Naruto, wake up!" I called out. "Time to go!"

I heard a groan, followed by stream of obscene words, which was followed by a few footsteps heading towards the door. It opened to reveal Kureiga, eyes half-lidded and face twisted slightly into a scowl. I stared at him, and he stared back. He then pointed towards the direction of the front door.

"Short Stack is waiting for you outside," he said before turning back into the room and closing the door with an emphatic slam. I sighed and shook my head as I turned towards the stairs. I made my downstairs and out towards the front door. Sure enough, there was Naruto, sitting on the floor, stretching. As I approached him, he looked over his shoulder, trying to see who was coming. When he realized who it was, he smiled as he made his way to his feet.

"Sakura-chan!" he yelled out in greeting like he usually did whenever he saw me. I smiled at him slightly, surprised to see him up this early. I mentally shook my head. Naruto had been rather unpredictable as of late. Just a few weeks ago, Naruto's taijutsu skills weren't even on a level of an academy student. And then all of a sudden, he's able to stalemate Kureiga, who seemed to improve dramatically from the last I saw him fight. One minute, he cowers before two chuunin. The next moment, he comes up with a plan that could throw a jounin off balance. So who is Naruto? All this time, I thought of him as a hopeless idiot who screws everything up. Maybe he was something more.

"Good morning, Naruto," I said. "How long were you up?"

"Since about two others ago," he laughed out, rubbing the back of his head. He then sighed. "I'm really anxious to finish this training. So let's go, dattebayo!" I nodded as we made our walk over to the training area. The walk was rather quiet, which was surprising considering how talkative Naruto usually is. The silence made the trip seem longer than it really was. We finally made it to the training area. Naruto took a few moments to eye his tree. He then averted his gaze towards Sasuke's tree before looking back at me.

"What must I do?" he asked.

"I don't know yet," I said. "I don't know what you are doing wrong. Go and try to climb the tree the way you were doing yesterday. Then I'll give you an answer."

The blonde-headed boy nodded before turning towards his tree. He brought his hands together into the ram seal, conjuring up the chakra that he needed. That's when I felt it. As he ran forward towards the tree, I already knew the result. And I knew the reason: He was putting too much chakra into it.

Techniques using chakra needed the right amount of chakra. While some techniques become more effective when you put more chakra into the technique, you can't put too much too much into or the technique, at best, is rendered useless, and at worst, harmful or even deadly to the user. Naruto was pouring way too much chakra into the technique. Tree climbing only required the faintest amount of chakra. Naruto (who landed on back, stopping at his previous spot before falling on to his back) was using the same amount of chakra Kureiga would use for one of his lightning attacks. How did I know this? Because had he been using a just a little bit of chakra, I wouldn't have been able to _feel _his chakra being redirected.

"Naruto," I said as he stood up. "Come here a moment." He walked over towards me. As soon as he stopped in front of me, I tilted my head. "Do you know how much chakra you put into that technique?" He paused for a few moments.

"Only a little bit?" he answered, his response sounding more like a question. I shook my head, partly to say no his answer, and partly in a mild frustration, as I placed my hands on my hips.

"You used as much chakra as Sasuke would use for his Great Fireball." This made Naruto wince slightly. I mentioned Sasuke to drive home the point, knowing that it was one nail that could pierce him. "You're using too much chakra, Naruto. You need to tone it down a little. Actually, you need to turn it down a lot." I then straightened up and smile slightly. "I'll show you a trick. But for it to work, you must do as I do, okay?"

"Yes ma'am," he said in salutation. I smiled at this. His response almost made me feel as if I was a sensei of a team of my own. I then closed my eyes and stood still.

"Alright, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and clear your mind." I opened one eye to peek at Naruto. He had his eyes close and his face was calm. I closed my lone open eye before bringing my hands together in a seal. "Form a seal with your hands and try to divert chakra towards your feet. It should be easier to put a small amount of chakra towards your feet now. Remember, only a little bit. Just a little bit… And now go!"

I opened my eyes to see Naruto charging towards the tree. Before he reached the tree, he quickly grabbed a kunai from his holster. He then planted his left foot against the tree, then his right foot. He was running up the trunk of the tree now. He kept on running until his footing gave way about halfway up the tree. He slashed the bark before dismounting off the tree and landing on his feet.

"Yatta!" he cried out, pumping his fist.

"No you didn't," I said bluntly. "You only made it halfway." This caused Naruto to bow his head slightly. I then smiled. "But hey, it's a start. You're a lot farther than yesterday." I gave him two thumbs up. "You should be able to complete the exercise in no time." Naruto lifted his head before smiling, giving me a thankful nod. "Well, I have to go. I have to watch Tazuna today." I waved at him before I turned to walk.

"Sakura-chan?" Naruto called out. I turned around, expecting him to ask me out on a date like he usually did.

"Yes?" I said, trying to hold back the annoyance in my voice.

"Thank you." I widened my eyes slightly. I then smiled.

"You're welcome."


	7. Land of Waves Arc: Staying Strong

(A/N: I know, short chapter. The next one will be better)

Haku

"What's this?" I heard some yell behind me. I didn't even turn around to see who it was, for I already knew who the voice belong to. It belonged to none other than Gato, ruthless shipping magnate, and the current client of our services. Even without facing him, I could see the man flanked by his two samurai bodyguards, glaring at me through his sunglasses as I sat bedside next to a currently sleeping Zabuza.

I never liked the guy. He was such a detestable person all around. The fact that he desired the Land of Waves' shipping routes under his control so badly that he could care less about how much the country is suffering didn't sit well with me. I knew what was going to happen once we killed Tazuna. Gato was going to drain this country until it became nothing more than a name of the past. I really didn't want to take this mission. However, I wasn't in charge of choosing missions. Zabuza was. Whatever he went, I followed. And whatever mission he took, I assisted. And besides, I was a ninja, which meant I was mere weapon used by the client to achieve even the most despicable of goals, as long as the money was right.

"He's resting," I said, swallowing my pride.

"Resting…." Gato said. I heard footsteps behind as the group approached. "I didn't pay you guys to lounge around! I paid you to kill that blasted bridge builder!"

"It's not that easy!" I said, turning around to face him as I sat up. "He has a group of ninja from the leaf protecting him." This explanation did little to quell Gato's anger.

"That does not matter to me! I paid you all good money to kill this man because you said you were the best at such a task. I didn't pay you to sleep." As he said this, he brought his hand out towards Zabuza's resting form, intent on rousing him. Before his hand could reach however, I angrily brought my left hand out and grabbed Gato's wrist before twisting it to my right. The audible sound of bones cracking could be heard.

"Don't. Touch him." As I said those words his samurais instantly reached for their swords to unsheathe them. They then stopped in mid-draw as the temperature of the room literally dropped several degrees. "Do you really want to try your luck with me?" As I spoke, haze formed around my mouth, my breath now visible. I released Gato, who stumbled backwards, holding his right hand. He then sneered at me.

"You'll pay for this," he declared as he turned away, his bodyguards in tow. I huffed out a breath as I turned towards Zabuza.

"You didn't have to defend me," Zabuza said as he rolled over on his back, revealing the kunai that was palmed in his right hand. I smiled slightly.

"I know," I said, cracking my neck slightly. "Why do we put up with him in the first place?"

"We made a contract with him. And I honor all contracts to the letter. But don't worry. Once we're done with Tazuna, Gato will be the next person to lose his head."

Sasuke

Ever since a few nights ago, the spar between Naruto and Kureiga kept on playing in my head. And it wouldn't stop. No matter how much I tried to ignore it, it kept on annoying me, like a mosquito.

Quite frankly, I didn't expect Naruto to become as skilled as he was. I remembered, back at the academy, that he had nothing going for him. It took him years just to be able to throw a kunai or shuriken properly. And while everybody at least had a jutsu of their own, Naruto couldn't perform a simple clone. And yet here was Naruto, not only learning a clone technique that most, if not all, Leaf-nin learn at the Jounin level and was learning a taijutsu style reserved only for the strong and determined. Determined, he was. But he wasn't powerful, at least, not as powerful as me.

As I stood there on the front porch, leaning against a railing, I decided to humor the thought of Naruto and I fighting each other one on one. Maybe the dobe could actually amuse me. I scoffed at the thought with rare smirk on my face.

"Hah, didn't expect you to be smiling," a voice sounded. I didn't even turn around as Kureiga approached, stretching his arms outward. His eyes were somewhat red and his eyebrows were drawn together in a frown. At first, I was going to just flat out ignore him, like I usually did. In my opinion, Kureiga's ability to mold the Lightning element was the only reason he wasn't on as low of a level as Naruto. But curiosity got the better of me.

"What do you think of Naruto?" I asked, turning my body towards him. Kureiga raised an eyebrow at me for a few moments.

"What's your angle, Sasuke?" he replied finally.

"What do you mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean." Kureiga's eyebrows squeezed closer together. "You usually ignore me, and you usually could care less about Naruto. So I'll ask you again: What's your angle?"

"Maybe I'm just curious?" I offered. Kureiga scoffed.

"Whatever," he said. He then shrugged. "What can I say? Man's got some heavy fists on him." He then tilted his head up. "Speaking of which, did Naruto get back yet?"

"I don't know," I replied, my voice carrying a slightly apathetic tone. Kureiga scoffed once more.

"Sorry, forgot who I was talking to." Kureiga then turned towards the house. "Tsunami's making breakfast."

"A heavy fist," I said after he disappeared into the home. I then scoffed before I turned and walked inside.

After breakfast, I decided to head back to training area to try and finish off my training. I couldn't help but have a smile on my face as I thought about how Naruto might have climbed. As the sight of Naruto and his tree came into view, I figured he might have climbed up about five feet.

And I was wrong.

As I walked up as Naruto was making another attempt to climb a tree, my eyebrows rose in surprise to see the huge gap in slashes and to see that he was over halfway up the tree. While he wasn't close to the point I reached, he wasn't far either. I narrowed my eyes as he fell towards the ground and landed on his feet. He paused for a few moments, giving me a dirty look as the only means of acknowledging my presence, before turning and making another climbing attempt.

I shook my head, reaffirming myself that the Dobe was not on my level. I then turned towards my tree and went to work on my training.

As my training went on, Naruto and I were making progress. However, despite the fact that I was making a progress, Naruto was gaining on me little by little. For every two slashes, he'd make three to four. I narrowed my eyes, trying to figure out how he was able to do it.

My answer came in the form of a pink-haired kunoichi, who was walking towards us.

"Ohayo," she greeted. Naruto slid down his tree and landed.

"Sakura-chan!" he greeted as usual. Sakura smiled as she pushed a bento into his hands while I stood on a sturdy branch above them and looked at them. "For me?"

Sakura nodded. "It was our breakfast," she said. "You forgot to come in." She then looked at Naruto's tree. "I see that my pointer helped." Naruto nodded.

"Yeah, I'm actually getting close to Sasuke," he replied. Sakura chuckled as she looked up at me for a few brief moments. She then blushed as she waved at me before turning away and walked away from us. I mulled over the exchange between the two of them before I dropped to the ground behind Naruto, causing the blonde to turn around quickly.

"Naruto…" I started. I frowned slightly. "Sakura showed you a trick?"

Naruto stared at me as if I grew a second head. He then chuckled. The chuckled continued briefly before it turned into hysterical laughter. I narrowed my eyes, not amused by the display. He then abruptly glared at me.

"I'm not telling."

My eyes widened slightly. I then turned away from him, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of knowing that he got one over me.

Again.

Haku

I was still a little agitated over the fact that Gato actually had the nerve to try and put his hand on Zabazu. So I changed clothes and did the one thing that usually calmed me down.

I went herb picking.

It was something I usually did when I ever became stressed or frustrated. Whenever I did so, I would be so focused that I would but forget about the thing that was bothering me. Plus, it would also result in having herbs in stock when I needed them, which was always a good thing.

So I was on my hands and knees, sifting through the grass for any herbs that could be of use. I was at it for about an hour, with my basket halfway full. I usually didn't go out for this long, but the earlier run-in with Gato left me particularly incensed. While Zabuza and I have never been hired out for saintly work, Gato made all of them looked like peacekeepers. Up to that point, I never hated client so much. Because of that, I was extra focused. And, uncharacteristically, I ended up drifting a lot further.

As I picked an herb, I looked of briefly, catching a mass of orange. I looked back down briefly before doing a double take. Orange suit, blonde hair, whisker marks. Indeed, it was the boy from earlier. Twenty feet away, and he was dozing. I narrowed my eyes before I crawled over. I moved very slowly, making sure not to make a sound. I couldn't help but feel my heartbeat go up in anticipation as I slowly approached him.

_Just a little closer…_

Once I was close enough, I reached my hand over, letting it hover over his chest before I brought it down gently upon.

"Come on, you slept long enough," I said heartily as I shook him. I saw his eyes clench before they cracked open. His blue eyes looked up at me for a few seconds, and I felt as if I was being scrutinized. It was as if he was trying to determine if I was a threat or not. I guess I couldn't blame him after the ordeal Zabuza put him and his team through. After a few seconds, he sat up. I backed away a little bit to give him some room. He brought his arms out in a stretch as he groaned and arched his back slightly. He then turned his head back to me.

"Good morning," I greeted.

"Hey," he said in a near whisper. He then looked around before he sighed out. "Did I really spend the night out here?"

"…" I paused for a few moments, digesting what he told me. He spent the night out here, sleeping. With no tent, no sleeping bag, not even a fire. I took one more look at him and saw that he was a little dirty. I narrowed my eyes before speaking again. "What were you doing?"

"Training," he said. "I'm trying to get stronger!"

"I see… Ah, my manners! My name is Haku. Yourself?" As I said this, I brought my hand out. The blonde-haired by smiled as he took my hand and gave it a slight shake.

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, Genin of the Leaf." I returned his smile.

"So, you were training?" I said.

"Yeah," he said. "I have to become stronger. I want to be Hokage someday!"

_To become Hokage… _It was definitely a lofty goal for a genin. As a matter of fact, he was the first one I met who had such a goal. I never heard of a ninja ever wanting to become a Kage ever since he was about Naruto's age.

"That is a very large goal," I said. "Is there a reason why you want to be Hokage?"

"So people could recognize me." As he said this, I couldn't help but detect a slight edge to his voice. Was it anger? Or was it sadness? Or, perhaps, it was a little mix of both? He then continued. "A lot of the villagers don't like me."

I couldn't help but frown, if only out of empathy. When I lived in the Land of Water, the people there hated and feared people with Blood Limits due to this war that involved combatants who used Blood Limits. This extended to my father, who led a small mob to kill my mother due to her having one. He almost did the same to me, but fortunately (or unfortunately), I killed him with the one thing he feared and loathed.

"So how come you're out here?" he asked. I blinked, and then smiled slightly.

"I'm just here picking herbs," I answered before I got on all fours again to search for more.

"May I help?" he asked. I thought about it for a moment before nodding. And that's what we did for the next hour. During the herb picking, he told me about his team, from his crush on Sakura, to his hatred of Sasuke and his friendship with Kureiga. Throughout the whole story, I couldn't help but notice how delicate he was in handling the plants. He was so careful in not damaging them, as if he had a lot of experience doing so. This was a surprise to me. I wouldn't have pegged him for a gardener.

The longer we spoke, the more I hoped that I wouldn't have to kill him. Had we met under different circumstances, or in a different world, we could have been friends. Maybe I'd even consider him a brother. But unfortunately, we were both ninjas that had a mission to accomplish.

"So you want to be stronger," I said. "Do you have something, or someone to protect?" Naruto raised an eyebrow at that question.

"Someone to protect?" he repeated. I smiled.

"When a person has someone or something to protect, they train harder to make sure that they keep that person or thing protected. Especially that person or thing means a lot to them. At least, that's what I heard." Naruto bowed his head in thought. I smiled as I stood up. He stood up with me and smiled. "Well, Naruto-san, I got to go. It was nice speaking with you."

"Likewise," he said. He then stood up on the tip of his toes to place a kiss on my cheek. I couldn't help but widen my eyes as I took a step back in surprise. Naruto gave me a confused look, then an apologetic look. "Did I do something wrong, Lady Haku?"

That's when it donned on me. I then chuckled.

"Not really," I said. "It's just that, I'm a boy."

The look of animated surprise on his face wasn't the first one I ever received. But, for someone reason, it never lost its comedic value.

Sakura

It was the middle of the night. And I was lying in my sleeping bag, awake. I was trying to sleep for two hours, but I couldn't help but think about my trip into town with Tazuna. Even after talking with Kureiga the night before, I wasn't prepared for what I saw.

Sighing, I sat up, rubbing my eyes with my fingers before standing up. I looked down at my sleeping ware to make sure that I wasn't dressed too inappropriately before I made my way downstairs. I made sure to keep my steps light so I wouldn't wake anyone up. As soon as I made it down stairs and made a left, I saw sitting at the table, nursing a glass of water. On that same table was a pitcher. I stood there, surprised to see him. He was ready to take another sip when his dark eyes landed on me.

"Couldn't sleep, either, I see," he said. I didn't say anything at first. Instead, I walked over, past Kureiga and towards the cupboard. I opened up the cupboard and took out an empty glass. I then turned towards him.

"Mind if I join you?" I asked. He shrugged.

"Just as long as you don't hit me," he quipped. I scoffed as I took a seat from across him. "So what's keeping you awake at this time?"

"Remember when you told me about the town?" I asked. Kureiga nodded with a low hum before beginning to take a sip. "Well, I started to see what you mean?" After taking his sip, he set the glass down.

"Screwed up, isn't it?" he commented. I scoffed.

"Screwed up? Screwed up doesn't even begin to describe it. Everything seemed so run down. I passed by a stand that was selling vegetables, and the produce were sparse and seemed barely edible at best. Half the businesses were closed. This was the first time I came across a beggar. And you want to know the worst part?"

"What?"

"He was just a boy, no older than we were when we first started the academy."

"That sucks." Kureiga shook his head. "I'm not going to lie to you, I don't think I ever been in a town that was so rundown. I don't even think my dad has ever been a place that was in such a rundown state."

"Has your father been here before?"

"Oh he had. But he talked about how lively it was. It was the place where you can find anything. And when I mean anything, I mean _anything._ A lot of traders went through the Land of Waves, so a lot of valuable items would be available in abundance. Not only that, a lot of people went here for vacation. A lot of people came to just relax, or even retire. This doesn't look like the place he left." Kureiga pressed his lips together. "It's not the same as he described it. Not anymore anyway."

I looked over at Kureiga in silence as he looked down at the table with a mix of disappointment, anger, and annoyance. We remained silent for a few more moments.

"So…" I began, wanting to break the silence."… What's keeping you awake?" As I asked this, I reached over and grabbed the pitcher of water and began to pour in my glass. Kureiga shrugged.

"Nightmares," he said. I raised an eyebrow at him. He raised his eyebrows briefly. "Zabuza."

"Did he really spook you that much?"

"Spook me? No. He didn't spook me. Cats that jump out of nowhere spook me. Lightning strikes that hit close enough, ironically, spook me. No, Zabuza doesn't _spook_ me. Zabuza outright _terrifies_ me." I watched him as I noticed his bloodshot eye. And with every word, the irritation became more and more present in his voice, and the volume of his speech rose ever so slightly. "Do you know what I saw before Kakashi saved me from getting decapitated? Huh? Do you? I saw this man that was about to swing a sword at my neck, fully intent on taking my head off and keeping it for a trophy. And not just any kind of a sword, mind you. I'm talking about a sword so ridiculously large that freaking _giants_ can use it as freaking _dagger!_ And does he have any trouble swinging that thing? No! I have more trouble handling a kunai than he has handling that thing!"

"Kureiga!" I whispered sharply. "Calm down. Everyone else is sleeping!" Kureiga took in a deep breath before sighing.

"Sorry," he said. He took a swig from his glass of water. He then set the glass of water down, just as I decided to take a sip.

"I didn't expect you to be so shook up by it," I mused. He scoffed.

"You tend to be when you become this close to having your head mounted on the wall." I frowned. I then brought my hand out and grabbed the glass pitcher. I then brought the water forward before tipping it, pouring water into Kureiga's glass. I didn't stop until the water level was about an inch from the top of the glass. I set the pitcher down before looking back at Kureiga. He looked back at me with a look of slight surprise.

"Kakashi was able to defeat Zabuza the first time," I pointed out. "I don't see why it can't happen again."

Kureiga kept his eyes on me for a few more moments. He then nodded before picking up the glass and taking a sip.

We sat there in silence, drinking away in silence until the pitcher was empty. We then stood up, with Kureiga taking the glass and pitchers to the sink. I don't know why, but I waited for him. This seemed to surprise him as he turned away from the sink, only to pause for a brief moment to see me stand there. He then walked towards the stairway, and I went with him as he passed by. We both ascended up the stairs, still in silence, before making our way to our rooms. We came to a stop in front of his door. Before he could open the door, I gently grabbed his elbow. He turned and looked at me, and I gave him a smile.

"We'll get complete this mission," I said. After a brief moment, Kureiga returned my smile before turning away and opening the door. He then looked back at me one last time.

"Goodnight, Sakura," he said.

"Goodnight, Kureiga," I replied. He nodded before entering his room, closing the door behind him.


	8. Land of Waves Arc: Bystander

Naruto

I groaned when I heard a knock on the door. Well, more like banging. I turned my head towards the door, eyes narrowed. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kureiga standing up, muttering a few words as he sat up. I then glanced at Sasuke, who was not amused by the noise.

"Come on guys, wake up!" a voice said as the banging continued. It took me a moment before I recognized Sakura's voice. "We have to be down in the kitchen."

"WE'RE UP ALREADY!" Kureiga yelled out.

"Someone better be dying," Sasuke said in a quiet, yet vehement tone. I internally agreed with him while Kureiga grunted.

The three of us took us some time to change into our uniforms before we made our way out of the room. As we made our way down the stairs, I looked towards Kureiga before speaking.

"Hey Kureiga," I said. Kureiga's dark eyes looked towards me. "You finished that tree-climbing exercise quickly. What did you get out of it?"

Kureiga kept his eyes on me for a few moments. He then smiled slightly before looking forward. I blinked at him before bringing my head forward.

"Fine, be that way," I said half-jokingly. Kureiga merely scoffed before we reached down the floor. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Sasuke smirk briefly before he returned to his default expression. We turned the corner to see Sakura, sitting at the table with a glass of water in her hand. I couldn't help but noticed the uncomfortable look on her face. Kureiga didn't notice, or just didn't care, because he stepped forward, not happy about being woken up in such a way.

"You better have a good reason for waking us up this morning!" he said with a decent amount of heat.

"As a matter of fact she does," a voice said behind us. We all turned to see Kakashi-sensei standing without the use of his crutches. I couldn't help but smile.

"You're well," I said. Kureiga laughed with glee.

"Awesome," the black-clad nin commented. Sasuke however, palmed his face with his right hand.

"You, idiots," he said, shaking his head in his palm.

"Oh, thanks, Sasuke," Kureiga shot back. "You really know how to encourage a person."

"Don't you get it?" Sasuke's head shot up, looking straight at Kureiga. "If he's able to stand right now, then so is Zabuza!"

Kureiga scoffed, shrugging his shoulders. "And your point is? We know all of Zabuza's tricks now and -"

"We still don't know what his companion can do. For all we know, he can kill us all."

"Obviously she isn't if she was just sitting off on the sidelines!"

"Or maybe she's just a trump card!"

"He does have a point," Sakura said, standing up. She opened her mouth to say something else, but Kureiga was quicker to say something.

"Oh, you _would _say that!" Kureiga shot back.

"Enough!" Kakashi said before rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Kureiga, they do have a point. Zabuza, as powerful as he is, wouldn't choose someone like her as a partner if she wasn't very powerful. As such, we're going to do everything we can to prepare. We still got a few days, but we're going to use as much time as possible to be ready. Naruto and Sasuke, make it a priority to complete your training as soon as possible. Sakura, you're taking guard duty. Kureiga, you've worked with Tenten before, right?"

"Yeah," he said.

"Think you can handle checking over our weapons for any defects?"

"…Sure."

"Good. Keep your afternoon open. But for now, I think you might need to take a walk." The way he said it and the accompanying glare lead me to believe that Kureiga didn't have a choice in the matter. Kureiga pressed his lips together before nodding. At this time, Sakura stuck her tongue out him. Kureiga looked at her for a moment. He then turned away and walked towards the door. I looked back at Sakura as she smiled, seemingly satisfied with herself. The smile vanished as she scowled. I looked back at Kureiga just in time to see him withdraw his middle finger as he stepped out the house. Sasuke walked away and walked towards the sink as if the argument never happened as Sakura stalked towards the stairs before ascending them. I looked back at Kakashi-sensei as he huffed out a breath.

"Are Kureiga and Sakura always like this?" I asked. Kakashi shook his head.

"It's complicated," he said. I narrowed my eyes at the door.

"Do you think they like each other?" I said. I felt a subtle amount of anger in my chest. Kakashi merely chuckled.

"I can assure you one thing; those two will NEVER be a couple."

And they never did.

After a quick breakfast, I was back at the tree again. Even though I didn't say anything, I knew I was catching up to Sasuke. Every now and again, I saw him steal a glance towards me. And during those few times, I could see the look on his face; the look of surprise and disbelief. I hated being looked down upon, so I couldn't help but feel joy from knowing that Sasuke was looking over his shoulder.

At one point, I dropped to the ground after making another mark on the tree. I straightened myself, looking up at the tree for a few moments. A soft thud sounded a few feet away from me, telling that Sasuke landed. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him give me a look. I turned towards Sasuke, who narrowed his eyes at me.

"I've come a long way, huh teme?" I asked. I then gave him a half smiled that exposed once of my slightly long canines as I furrowed my eyebrows slightly. This caused Sasuke's eyes to narrow even more as lines started to form on his face. I then turned towards my tree again before getting back to the training. By the time lunch rolled around, Sasuke and I were just over three thirds of the way up, and I was only five slashes behind.

At the lunch table, Kureiga finally came back from his long walk. Gone were the bandages on his face, showing that his face was mostly healed, showing only a few small scabs. However, his right hand was now wrapped in linen, forcing him to eat with his left hand. Naturally, it was a slow process for him. While this was going on, I caught another look from Sasuke. This look wasn't as hateful as the last look I received. It still made me uncomfortable, and I couldn't help but glare back at him. I then winced slightly when I felt something hit my temple. I brought my left hand up against it and wiped it, I felt something against my palm, so I pinched it in between my two fingers. I brought it front of my face to see that it was a rice kernel. I looked over to my left to see Sakura giving me warning glare.

Needless to say, a lot of glares were given to each other.

The table was silent for the most part, with the exception of the bottom of glasses hitting the surface of the wooden table. Tazuna, being Tazuna, wouldn't let the silence go on for too long.

"So… how's everything?" he asked.

Everybody remained quiet. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Kakashi eyeing every single last one of us. And for good reason. Things were tensed at the table as we focused on eating our lunch. Inari, the kid from a few days earlier shifted in his seat.

"It would probably be best to let them enjoy this lunch," he said. "It's going to be one of their last ones."

Kureiga furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at the young child.

"What's that supposed to mean?" the black-clad nin demanded.

"Leave him alone," Sakura interjected.

Kureiga looked over at Sakura and stared daggers into her. The look was immediately returned and I could see Kakashi back his seat up, getting ready to intervene. But before things could combust between them, Inari continued.

"I mean what I said. You all are going to die soon."

That was the second time he said it. And it was even more unnerving as the first time. I pressed my lips together as I felt another welling of anger in my chest. It was more intense then last time. I placed my hands underneath the table before I balled them up into fists as I resisted the urge to toss the table aside and give him the same beating I gave the Hokage's grandson.

"Your concern for our lives is greatly appreciated, but unnecessary," Kureiga quipped sarcastically before returning to his lunch. He gave a Sakura another look. This was less angry and more annoyed. Sakura merely sighed before returned to her lunch as well. I took in a deep breath to calm myself down before I brought my hands up above the table again. I looked over at Kakashi, who grimaced at me through his mask.

Kureiga

Yeah, that lunch time wasn't tense at all.

Needless to say, I couldn't wait for it to be over. After I was done, I stood up and exited to the back area that overlooked the sea. I saw three different piles of weapons, each with a piece of a paper bearing a name on it. I pressed my lips together as I removed by back pack and let it hung from my right hand. I then walked over to the nearest pile (Sasuke's) before kneeling down.

Kunai were my favorite of the rudimentary weapons. They were more versatile then shuriken, which were meant to be thrown and thrown only. With kunai, you can throw and used them a melee weapons. They were durable, and a kunai that is good condition is enough to stand up to the largest of blades, as Kakashi showed when he took on Zabuza.

But the thing was, as durable as kunai are, it degrades like any other weapon. So, that meant taking care of them looking over each and making sure there no cracks or nicks in the blade itself, and making sure they were not dull. So, as I opened my back pack and reached in for my whetstone and black rag, I made sure I was comfortable. I then tied the black rag around the bottom half of my face before getting started.

It was a long process, to say the least. I myself usually spent at least five minutes on a blade. If there was something wrong with the blade, then the process could take a lot longer, maybe twenty minutes. Given the time, I blew through Sasuke's blades, only sharpening a few. This didn't surprise me. Even before the academy, I imagined that his clan training involving imprinting the importance of tool maintenance. Had I not grew close with Tenten, I doubt I would have placed tool maintenance in high regard. I was about to go to Sakura's pile, but I decided to go to Naruto's pile instead, still somewhat angry with Sakura.

I think an hour passed, and I was halfway done when I heard footsteps behind me. I looked behind me to see Kakashi walking up behind me. I pressed my lips together before bringing my attention back to my task.

"You here to check up on my handy work, or are you here to chastise me for arguing with Sakura?" I asked. I then sighed as I bowed my head. "Sorry for the disrespect."

"I see you're still angry," he said as he took a seat next to me.

"I'll get over it." I picked up another kunai before banging it against the ground. It didn't break, which prompted me to look over the blade and glide my index across it. "What's the deal with that Inari kid, anyway?"

"He has his reasons," Kakashi said. He said nothing more as he looked out to horizon.

"Oh really?" I quipped.

"Just don't do anything that'll get us in trouble," he said. "You should watch that temper of yours."

"I don't have a temper problem," I said with an annoyed tone. "'Sides, Naruto's the person you need to watch. You know he punched out Konohamaru in front of the Hokage?" I couldn't help but smile slightly when I heard a short chuckle of amusement sound from Kakashi's masked lips.

"So I heard. Naruto could be unpredictable. But the fact still remains. I couldn't help but notice that you have an antagonistic relationship with Sakura. I understand that you two have your differences. But, honestly, whether you like it or not, you two have to coexist. You managed to coexist with Sasuke."

"That's because Sasuke doesn't even talk to me unless he has some ulterior motive. And while I hate that, I'd take Sasuke's silence over Sakura's mouth any day of the week, twice on the ones ending in the letter 'y'."

I pulled another blade, knowing full well that Kakashi was rolling his eyes.

"Why do you dislike Sakura so much, anyway?" he asked. That got me to pause. I then looked back at Kakashi, wondering if he was serious.

"Do I _really _need me to answer that? The girl's a hypocrite. She's quick to hit me or Naruto for doing something she deems as stupid. But I can bet a stack of ryo that she would just look at Sasuke all freaking googly-eyed if he did the same thing. Plus… she's a bitch!"

"Watch it," Kakashi said in a clipped tone. I took in a deep breath before releasing it.

"I'm not irritable," I said.

"Kureiga, you're not exactly the most agreeable person to be around," he said. "Matter of fact, I can list the many flaws in your character that quite a few people would find less than desirable. I'm not saying that to put you down. And I'm not saying that to defend Sakura. I'm saying that you shouldn't be so irritable around her. Remember what I said to Sasuke?" I nodded slowly. "The same applies to you. Whether you two like it or not, you're going to be stuck together for a long time. Deal with it."

And with that, he stood up, leaving to my thoughts. I paused for a moment before I continued.

"I'm not irritable," I whispered to myself. At that point, I didn't even know who I was trying to convince.

Sakura

I sat out front, looking out to the ocean as I tried to clear my head. Usually, at this point, I would be marveling at the beauty of the ocean. I don't much chances to see the ocean back in the Fire Country. The docks and beach was located quite a ways from Konoha, and prior to this mission, I never took a boat anywhere outside of the country.

Problem was, I wasn't exactly having the best day. And of course, Kureiga was the reason behind it. We were at odds with each other, and had been since that incident in the restaurant. We argued a lot about that incident for a while after. I was angry with him for his temper and how he trashed part of the venue. He was angry with me because I didn't even bother to try and defend Naruto. But could one blame me? Naruto was a known prankster, so no doubt he did something to warrant those actions. Granted, Naruto did pay for the food, and the food did come back horrible. But even under those circumstances, Kureiga couldn't expect Naruto to do the things he does without suffering retribution.

Needless to say, I wasn't exactly fond of Kureiga. I just think he is nothing but a person who thinks his reasons justified his actions, even if the reasons themselves were rather questionable in and of themselves.

I was broken out of my thoughts when I heard footsteps behind me. I looked over my shoulder to see Kakashi-sensei approaching me. I looked back out at the ocean, seeing that it took on a golden glow. Within moments, he took a seat right next to me.

"It's a Beautiful sight, isn't it?" he said. I nodded in agreement. Prior to this mission, I didn't spend that much time outside of the village. When I did, I merely entered one of the surrounding forests that gave Konoha its name. So, seeing an ocean wasn't exactly an everyday occurrence for me. I didn't take that much time to gaze at the scenery. It was kind of hard to when you have to protect a bridge builder from a missing-nin that was way above our pay grade. This was my first time actually enjoying the sight of it since I came to the Wave Country.

"It is," I replied, allowing a smile to grace my face. I knew that smile wasn't going to last long. Nothing against Kakashi-sensei, but he wasn't exactly a hanging out type. He wanted to talk about something important.

"I want to talk to you about Kureiga," he said. And just like that, my smile faded away. It was replaced with a scowl and a frown.

"What about him?" I said dismissively. I didn't want to have this conversation with him. I didn't want to talk about him at all.

"Your antagonistic relationship with him, to be specific." I pressed my lips together.

"I don't like him and he doesn't like me. It's as simple as that."

"Why don't you like him?" he pressed on. I then turned my head away from the ocean and towards Kakashi, who looked back at me with his one exposed eye.

"You mean other than the fact that he just seems to be argue with me just for the sake of it? Other than the fact he thinks he's justified in doing stuff that is looked down upon? Other than the fact that he likes to curse a lot for no reason? Other than the fact that he gets angry over trivial things? No reason."

"Sakura… you do realize that you're not exactly the easiest person to deal with, right?" Kakashi said pointedly. "I'm not going to act as if Kureiga doesn't have his flaws, because he has quite a bit. But, honestly, you're not exactly helping things either." I raised an eyebrow at that one.

"How so?"

"You do treat Kureiga and Naruto unfairly. Especially when compared to Sasuke. As a matter of fact, I think you'd let Sasuke get away with stuff you tend to pound on Kureiga and Naruto " Kakashi then sat up as I thought about that for a moment. "What I said to Sasuke back during the bell test applies to you. You and Kureiga are going to be around each other for a long time. I'm not asking you to be friends. But remember that you are part of a team. Your actions and his actions could have detrimental effects on that team. Just something that you should think about."

As he walked off, I looked back into the ocean, thinking about what he said. I then looked back towards the house. I then got up and walked towards it. After some minutes, I was inside and on my way towards the top floor. I didn't stop until I reached the door of the boys' bedroom. I brought my hand up before I used it to rap the wooden service three times.

"Kureiga, are you in there?" I asked.

"Yeah, I am," he yelled out from behind the door.

"Can I come in?"

"Can you promise you won't hit me?"

"…Sure."

I heard a sarcastic chuckle from behind the door.

"Fine, come in. But tie the hitai-ate around your mouth and nose before. I don't I need to tell you what inhaling steel shavings can do to your day, do I?"

"Nope!" I untied my forehead protector from around my head. I then grabbed the corners of it and let it unravel before I tied it around the bottom half of my face. I then twisted the door knob before opening the door. I saw Kureiga on his knees, sharpening a blade before bringing it up to his eyes, examining it. "So, are you the team's ironsmith now?"

"I guess," he said. "But I guess that's what happens when you tell your sensei that you like to work with Tenten from time to time." He paused for a moment before tossing the blade in large pile. "And, that's, as they say, is that." He looked back at me. "You really know how to keep your weapons in great shape."

"Thanks," I said. "Something I learned from the academy."

"Yeah?" he mused. "Well, Tenten taught me that. Or, more like threaten to skewer me if I ever trained with her with shoddy weaponry again."

I then scoffed. I then sighed "Hey, Kureiga, you got a minute."

"Not according to Inari," he said bitterly.

"Are you still bothered by what he said?" He didn't say anything at first. He stood up and walked towards the door.

"Walk with me, I'm going to grab a broom and a dustpan," he said. I nodded as he opened the door. As he walked through, I followed him out. "I don't need some kid telling me that my days are numbered." He kept on walking until he reached a door. He opened it before bending over, searching around it.

"Kureiga," I said sternly. He's just a kid.

"Yeah, I know," he said as he stood up, dustpan and broom in hand. "So what's on your mind?"

"Look, I know we haven't exactly gotten along…" I paused for a moment. I noticed the corner of his mouth twitched. However, he didn't say anything, as if he was trying to hold back. I then continued. "But, considering that we are a part of a team, I think it would be best if we try to at least be…"

"Civil?" Kureiga said. I then nodded.

"Civil," I repeated. "I know we probably won't be friends or anything like that. But, we can at least try and get along."

Kureiga paused for a moment. He then nodded.

"Okay," he muttered. He then spoke. "Okay." I smiled at him from underneath my mask. I didn't I saw one his cheeks swell a bit, showing that he was half-smiling.

"I'm gonna go clean up my mess now," he said before walking away. I smiled to myself, thinking that everything was going to go smoothly for the rest of the night. But, as per usual during this mission, things didn't go as I thought they would.

Later that night, we were in the kitchen for dinner, dining with Tazuna and his family. Once again, the table was in silence. However, this silence was a little more comfortable. After a while, Kakashi spoke.

"So, how are things?" he said.

"Civil," Kureiga said. He then looked at me shot a wink. I couldn't help but chuckle as I dug into my rice.

"I'm almost done with my training," Naruto announced. I saw Sasuke look up at him and narrow his eyes at him. He then returned to his food. I started to notice that Sasuke would let off these looks every now and again. It was as if Naruto did something to disturb or surprise him. It had been happening more and more. I wanted to say something, wanting to know if Naruto did something to upset him, but Kakashi chimed in with praise.

"That's very good, Naruto," he said with a smile. "I'm glad you're taking your training seriously."

"He better be," Kureiga said with a smile. "He wouldn't be much use as a punching bag to me."

"As if," Naruto fired back with a grin. "I don't think even Zabuza can stop me!"

"As if Zabuza fears a dobe like you," Sasuke interjected. Sasuke then smiled as Naruto glared at him. Kureiga merely laughed. I then shook my head.

"We keep on forgetting that Sasuke is working hard to," I said. "He may be the one to crush Zabuza, yet." At this, Sasuke's smile widened slightly.

"Huh," Kureiga said, leaning back against his seat with his arms raised. "I forgot we had the great Sasuke in our midst. MY bad." This caused a short chuckle to come out of Sasuke's mouth as almost all of the rest of us were in hysterics.

"HAHAHAHAHA," Tazuna laughed. "Aren't you all confident tonight?"

"I guess we got our confidence back," I said.

For that small moment in time, everything was… okay. Kureiga and I didn't hate each other, and neither did Naruto and Sasuke. We weren't scared of Zabuza or his companion. On the contrary, we were confident. I'd go as far to say that we were looking forward to it. Unfortunately, there was one person we forgot about at the table: Inari. He made his presence known by suddenly standing up in his seat, causing all of us to turn our heads towards him.

"How can you do this?" he said. "How can you all just sit here and laugh when you are all undertaking a suicide mission? You are all going to die and you won't change a single thing that happened here! Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

And just like that, things were back to normal. Kureiga set down his chop sticks before he opened his mouth. I looked straight at him, prompting him to look back at me. I shook my head, hoping he would just let it go. He pressed his tongue against his cheek as he huffed out a breath. He then stood up before walking past Inari. Inari took a step back as a spike of killing intent was let off by Kureiga. Instead of acting on it though, Kureiga just exited the house, slamming the door behind him. I looked back at the door, glad that Kureiga was able to rein in his anger.

"What have you done?" I heard a voice say. I turned around to see Naruto giving Inari a look of… I couldn't quite a put a finger on it. I could see the anger, but I also saw annoyance, disdain and… offense?

"What have I done?" Inari replied back.

"What have you done?" I opened my mouth to try and stop Naruto, but he kept on going. "You talk about how nothing's going to change, which tells me that you must have done something to try and change things. So what have you done?" Naruto went silent. I looked back at Inari who just looked back at him in silence. I then glanced back at Tsunami and Tazuna, who looked over at Naruto with a look of surprise. The silence went on for several seconds more as Naruto kept his eyes Inari, waiting for an answer that didn't come. Realizing this, Naruto scoffed. "Nothing… you have done nothing… and yet you want to go around and tell us that we're going to fail."

Inari opened his mouth, as if he was going to refute what Naruto said, but then he closed it, unable to say anything in reply.

"You words mean nothing to me. They mean nothing to _us_. All you are is a bystander. So why don't you just go cry somewhere else!"

With that said, Naruto stood up before walking past Inari and up the stairs. After that Sasuke stood before looking at Inari.

"Stay out of our way," Sasuke said with a glare before he made his way outside of the door. Inari just stood there, looking down at the ground with a look of surprise. Kakashi shook his head before looking over at Tazuna and Tsunami.

"You have to forgive Naruto," he said in a quiet tone. "He's been through a lot." He then stood up before making his way upstairs, no doubt to talk to Naruto.

I looked down at the table, confused by what Kakashi said about Naruto going through a lot. I thought about what he could have meant. I knew Naruto to be a prankster who wanted to become Hokage. Oh, and he liked ramen. And, from what I've seen lately, a pretty good fighter. But I didn't know much else about Naruto. I looked up at the stairwell. I then stood up before making my way towards the stairs.

I'm not usually for eavesdropping, but something told me that the conversation that our sensei was going to have with Naruto was one I had to listen to.


End file.
